The Unbreakable Bond
by donelys3
Summary: Totally reworking the history of Tiffany Hill and Sean Donely in late 1987 and 1988. This story picks up with Tiffany's return following a row with Sean. It includes Tiffany, Sean, her sister Cheryl and a doctor at General Hospital named Doug Baxter.
1. Chapter 1

Tiffany Hill is on a flight back to Port Charles after spending a week in Europe trying to get over her rollercoaster romance with Sean Donely. He's on her mind again, just like he has been pretty much every moment since she left. A familiar voice provides a welcome interruption.

"Tiffany, is that you?" Doug Baxter said, already knowing the answer. The research doctor at General Hospital had been jolted as if by electricity when he spotted her in the airport terminal. It had taken him this long to work up the nerve to talk to her. Their last meeting had been ... intense.

Doug had gotten to know Tiffany a couple months earlier, during one of the lulls in her romance with Sean. He thought they had hit it off, which was backed up by the fact that when he took her to his brownstone she had made romantic overtures. Overtures hell, she'd taken off her clothes and seemed very willing to let nature take its course. And they were about to, until an untimely accident outside his front door had pulled him away. When he got down to the street, he found Sean - who apparently had been following them - pinned between a car and a tree.

It was quickly apparent to the doctor that it wasn't over between the two of them, especially when a delirious Sean kept declaring his love for Tiffany. Not that he had any choice, but he stepped aside immediately. Although he did check on the patient's condition a day later, only to find him with the object of his own affections in his arms.

In the couple of months since that time, Doug hadn't forgotten her. Maybe it was her spirit, maybe it was the fact that when he was thinking about her the least that she popped back into his head in vivid detail. She had changed him, he had been a reclusive hermit when he ran into her the first time and she ended up in a heap beside his medical books. But since their romance ended practically before it began, he didn't spend every day and night with his head in a book anymore. He was dating, coming up empty because no one was measuring up to Tiffany Hill.

"Doug," Tiffany said brightly, covering up her feelings as she had become so used to doing as somewhat of a public figure. "It's been a while, how have you been?" She gestured to the open first-class seat next to her.

"Fine, fine. I'm coming back from one of those ever-exciting conventions in New York. I won't put you to sleep by giving you all the details."

"How's the research going?"

"Slow but steady thanks for asking. What about you?" He wanted to ask about her and Sean, hoping against hope that they weren't still together but not expecting it to be true because he had witnessed first-hand how strong the bond was between them.

"I'm all right, was just over in Europe."

"How was it?"

"The more things change, the more they stay the same," she said, and the words were ringing true for Tiffany on a number of fronts. It always seemed like when she took one step forward with Sean, there were two steps backward taken almost immediately. But he was part of her, it had been like that - for her at least - since the day they met. Everything she ever wanted in a man. Well almost anything, he wouldn't let her get too close. And she bemoaned that fact, since she really felt like she understood him at his core. Which meant she also got why he was reluctant to let go of his loner ways.

"Kind of sounds like my work," he said sympathetically.

She half-smiled and nodded, looking up at Doug and remembering how the opposite had been true when they met. He was so different from Sean. Well, they were both tall and handsome, but Doug was more classically so, with sandy blonde hair and one of those movie-star good looks that could have been as at home on a big screen as easily as with all kinds of microscopes and slides and whatever he had in his lab at General Hospital.

"Sean didn't go with you?" he asked, not being able to help himself any more.

"Uh, no," she said. "We're not together any more."

"Oh I'm sorry to hear that," he said, hoping that the words didn't sound as false to her as they did coming out of his mouth.

"Thanks," she said, looking away.

"He's an idiot," he replied.

"I keep trying to tell myself that. Maybe someday I'll actually believe it's him and not me."

"I hope so. You're terrific."

"You can still say that after what happened?" she said, disregarding the compliment. "I mean you more than anyone have reason to believe that I'm some flibberdigibit who doesn't know which way is up."

"I've never thought of someone less as a flibberdigibit," he said.

"Oh right, someone who takes off their clothes in front of a person in an effort to forget someone else ... what would you call that?"

"I'd probably call that someone in love," Doug said.

"Yeah, well, I think I've had quite enough of that," she said.

"I really would hate to hear that," he responded. "You have so much to give. So much life and spirit."

"Right. But speaking of spirits..." Tiff said, signaling to the flight attendant. "Can I get you something?"

"Whatever you're having," he said.

"Can we get some white wine please?" she said to the attendant, who nodded and went off to procure it.

Tiffany started fiddling with her jewelry.

"Tiff, I mean it," Doug said. "I mean, I wouldn't even admit this to myself until now, but you're kind of unforgettable. And if someone doesn't see that, it's really his loss."

"You're really good for my ego."

"I wouldn't say it if I didn't believe it. And believe this, I haven't seen a woman half as ..." His words trailed off as the flight attendant returned with two glasses of wine for them.

Slightly uncomfortable, Tiffany didn't given him a chance to finish the sentence. She clinked his glass. "To old friends," she said and smiled.

Doug got the message, he echoed her sentiment and they sipped the wine in silence.


	2. Chapter 2

Tiffany opened the door to her apartment and flipped on a light switch. She held it for Doug, who graciously was carrying her bags.

"It was really sweet of you to give me a ride home," she said genuinely.

"I was going this way and I didn't want to leave you at the mercy of a taxi."

"I appreciate that," she said. "Can I get you something?"

Just you, he thought to himself. To her he said, "How about a date?"

She smiled at him. "Do you really want to start this all over again?"

"Yes, I do," he said. "Hopefully with a different result."

"I can practically guarantee you of that," she replied.

"Good. Duke's tonight?"

Tiff froze in her tracks at the thought of seeing someone she didn't want to, but kind of did. But she recovered quickly. "That sounds fine. Shall I meet you there?"

"How about I pick you up? An hour too soon?"

"It'll be pushing it, but I think I can manage," she said, smiling brightly. He remembered why he was interested in the first place.

"Be back in 59 minutes and change," he said.

"Thanks again."

"You're welcome again," he replied, feeling lighter than he had in a couple of months. He resisted the urge to kiss her, even on the cheek, and exited.

Tiffany closed the door behind him and leaned on it. She actually was feeling a little better despite herself. Doug was a good distraction. But she knew she wasn't looking forward to facing a couple of people she would have to now that she was back. Oh well, she had her TV station ... and maybe something more to keep her occupied. Still, she couldn't help wondering where Sean was and what he was doing ... and if he had missed her the slightest bit.

Sean in his penthouse, finishing up a call with Herbert Quartermaine. Their little financial windfall had netted them both millions of dollars, in addition to winning Herbert his bet with Edward. Usually putting one over on Eddie would satisfy Sean, but he was feeling a little hollow since Tiffany left following their misunderstanding a a few weeks ago.

As soon as he put the receiver down, the phone rang. He snatched it quickly, hoping it was Tiffany - he seemed to be always be hoping it was her on the other end, and it never was. Well, it was about as close as he could expect to get.

"Hi Sean, how is one of the richest men on the Eastern seaboard doing this fine evening?"

There was a familiar cadence to the voice and a similarity Sean was sure neither woman would be happy about if he pointed it out to either one of them. "Hello, Cheryl," he said, disguising his disappointment as he was becoming accustomed to doing of late.

"How about spending some of your vast fortune on me tonight?" she said.

"You're definitely not one for mincing words, are you?" he responded with a hint of admiration.

"Certainly not when it isn't necessary, and maybe not even then," she said.

"What did you have in mind?" he asked.

"Depends on what you do. If you'd like to be alone, a nice dinner for two would be nice. Otherwise we could go out."

"Tempting offer. How about Duke's?"

"Not tempting enough, apparently," she said. "Duke's it is. And you don't even have to pick me up."

"Why's that?" Sean asked.

"Because I've just rented the penthouse."

"Really? So you're planning on staying in Port Charles for a while," he said.

"I've already struck a deal to open an office. So getting some digs commensurate with the image I want to project is essential," she said. "But we can talk about this more tonight. I'll see you in Duke's in a half-hour."

Cheryl hung up before he could respond.

"Woman knows what she wants," he said. He thought about that one for a second, and how she'd already wreaked some havoc in his life by trying to get what she was going after. He went upstairs to shower and change anyway.

Sean walked into Duke's 45 minutes later. He had been ready on time to meet Cheryl, but he wasn't going to let her think he had been eager to see her.

"It's nice to see you again, Sean," she said, leaning over and kissing his cheek.

"Nice to be seen."

"I took the liberty of ordering us a bottle," she said.

"And the liberty of starting to drink it too," he added.

"You were a tad late," Cheryl said.

"Glad I didn't hit serious traffic," Sean retorted.

"Would you like to sit or would you like to dance?" she asked.

"I think I'll sit for a few minutes and try to catch up," he said.

"Very well," she said, leading him to a table for two.

Sean sat down, deftly pulled the champagne out of the ice bucket and poured a tall glass for himself, leaving just enough room at the top for it to breathe. He gestured with his head toward Cheryl inquiringly, then topped off her glass.

She traced the rim with her finger and picked it up. "Here's to getting to know you better." She clinked his glass and drank, he still held his in his hand as he looked her over. "It's bad luck not to drink after a toast," she continued.

He slowly raised his glass and took a sip.

"You like?" she asked.

"The champagne is very good," he said deliberately, then quickly changed course. "Heard from your sister?"

"I knew we'd get around to that more sooner than later," she said. "Sean, I hadn't talked with El ... er, Tiffany ... in over a decade, I hardly think she would take the time to confide in me now when she's playing the 'wronged woman role' to the hilt."

"That may be true, but I don't believe you actually answered my question."

"I haven't heard from her. Can we get on with OUR evening?"

Sean was about to take another sip of his champagne when the object of his questioning appeared in the doorway with Doug Baxter.


	3. Chapter 3

The first person Tiffany saw when she entered Duke's was Sean. Her heart practically jumped into her throat against her will. And then she saw the second person - Cheryl - with Sean. That sight didn't keep her from casting her eyes back over to Sean though. He hadn't moved since she came in, hadn't averted his eyes from her. Nothing, no smile, no sign that she had any effect on him at all.

"Tiffany, so good to see you," Duke said, crossing over to welcome his guests. Hearing her own name broke the spell for the moment. "And Dr. Baxter, isn't it?"

"Doug, please," Doug said, as he helped Tiffany with her coat. She was wearing a black beaded long-sleeve dress that clung to her form in all the right places. Doug wasn't the only one who noticed.

"Very well," he said.

"Can you fit us in?" Tiffany said. "I'm afraid we don't have a reservation."

"Actually, you do," Duke said. "I was asked to save the best table in the house for the most beautiful woman and now I can see why. Allow me..."

He led them to a cloistered table on a platform across the room from where Sean and Cheryl were seated. Duke held out Tiffany's chair and she sat in it graciously.

"How are Anna and Robin?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"Very well, thank you."

"Send them my best," Tiff said.

"Of course, enjoy your evening," Duke said. "I'll send your waiter right over."

Before he had even walked away, the waiter brought an ice bucket with a bottle of champagne for them.

"I can't believe you had time to do all this," Tiffany said, truly impressed.

"How could I not?" Doug asked, passing a glass to her and then toasting her with his own. "To the New York State Medical Association," he said.

She looked at him questioningly.

"If I hadn't been coming home from that convention this afternoon, I wouldn't have run into you again," he said.

She laughed, clinked glasses and drank deeply. Over at his table, Sean's expression tightened.

"Now you know where my sister is. Going to do something about it?" Cheryl asked.

Sean mulled over his options. He took another sip of champagne. "No," he said.

"Oh, she's really not going to like that choice," Cheryl said. "Therefore, I personally have to admit that I love it. Shall we dance?"

"No," he said again.

"Oh you've turned into quite the wet blanket. Over my sister yet. Let me tell you something, Sean, girls like her are a dime a dozen where we come from," Cheryl said.

"Catty does not become you, Cheryl," Sean said. "I think you know that too, but you probably can't help yourself when it comes to your sister."

Cheryl hung her head like a child who has been chided in class. "You're right. Just a hard habit to break, I guess."

"Care to dance?" Sean asked.

"Aren't you angry with me?" she asked.

"Not angry, a little disappointed," he said, getting up and helping Cheryl to her feet. "But not so much that I'm willing to waste this evening, that bottle of champagne and some wonderful music."

"Wow, I'm impressed," Cheryl said as they began circling the floor together.

"And why is that?" Sean asked.

"I think men can act even more juvenile than women when they set their minds to it," she said.

"Maybe you've just known the wrong kind of man."

"Maybe," she said flirtatiously. "And maybe I can change that in Port Charles."

Sean was observing Tiffany and Doug over at their table. "Have any interest in doctors?" he asked absently.

"Oh please," Cheryl said. "Rich, eligible men who don't hang around 24:7 because their schedules won't allow them that. Sounds perfect. Especially those with blond and blue eyes like our friend over there."

Sean regards Cheryl again for a second, shakes his head and chuckles. "And it doesn't hurt that the doctor in question is showing interest in your sister. Because you love a challenge."

"I think the real challenge is you, Mr. Donely," she said and Sean bristles at hearing the term Tiffany used to address him with from time to time.

"Right. Because it's never a challenge to turn the head of a man who is head over heels for another woman," Cheryl said.

"I never said..." Sean started to say, then stopped.

"You don't have to. First of all, you have barely taken your eyes off her since she walked in the door. Second, you're not doing anything about it, which has to be totally out of your nature and third, you appear to not be picking up on any of my overt signals. That last one always is a clear indication to me of a man who is too far gone for his own good."

Sean doesn't say anything, he just keeps dancing and keeps watching Tiffany at the table.

"Can I do something to help at least?" Cheryl asked. "I could run interference, get him away from her for a few minutes."

"That's all right," he said.

"Aren't you going to do anything?" she asked impatiently.

"You're not real big on waiting things out, are you?"

"Maybe not, but it works pretty well in my business. Never have to keep the same focus for too long. I still think you should let me help. Just tell me how you want her to respond and I'll push the appropriate button," Cheryl said eagerly.

"I think I know how to push your sister's buttons," Sean responded straight-forwardly.

"I'll bet you do," Cheryl said, NOT straight-forwardly. "Personally I don't know why she isn't flying into your arms right now."

"She has her reasons," Sean said, knowing he's at fault for a large amount of their relationship woes and not really sure how to go about starting to fix them.

"Well, if I were her - which I obviously am not or we'd be in your penthouse right now in various states of undress..." Sean shook his head at Cheryl as she continued. "If I were her, I'd realize that any issues could be resolved a lot easier once the tension was ... shall we say dissipated."

"You have a really unique way of looking at things, Cheryl," he said.

"Compliment or putdown?" she inquired, already knowing the answer.

"Compliment, of course. More champagne?" he offered. Cheryl nodded and they crossed back to their table for another drink.


	4. Chapter 4

"You know it's hard to believe, but I don't think I had any better cuisine in Europe than I have had tonight in good ol' Port Charles," Tiffany said as the waiter started clearing plates off the table.

"It was the best I've eaten in quite some time, that's for sure," Doug said. "Care for dessert?"

"I don't think I have any place I can put it," she laughed.

"We could try to dance some of it off," Doug said.

Tiffany's not brimming with confidence about the prospect of dancing in the vicinity of Sean and Cheryl, but she agrees anyway. Doug stands and extends his hand over to hers, she takes it and he rubs it gently as they walk to the dance floor. Tiff tries very hard not to look in the faces of Sean and Cheryl on the way.

"This isn't so bad, right?" Doug asked, placing his hand around her waist and squeezing it comfortingly.

"Of course not," she said. "You're a wonderful dancer."

"Do you know who the woman is with Sean?" he queried.

"All too well," Tiffany said, rolling her eyes.

"Who is she?"

"That would be my sister, Cheryl Ann Stansbury."

"I didn't know you had a sister."

"We hadn't seen each other in quite some time. In fact, for years and years ... until she conveniently showed up at Sean's penthouse one day."

"Whoa," Doug said.

"You could say that again," Tiffany said. "You should have seen me introducing them when they both already knew each other quite well. Pretty ridiculous."

"You going to say anything to them now?" he asked, not avoiding the elephant in the room.

"Not right now, having too good of a time ... with you," she replied.

"Should we have a plan in case he tries to cut in?" Doug teased.

Sean hasn't overheard what Doug said, but he ironically takes that moment to cut in on him. Tiffany's a little taken aback, since she hadn't had enough time to figure out how she wanted to handle such a situation. She decides not to make a big deal out of it and nods her reluctant approval. Doug looks apprehensive, but he leaves them alone.

"You said you'd call me when you got back," Sean said.

"I just returned today," she said.

"I could have met you at the airport," he said. "We could have talked."

"Don't think there's much left to say. Enjoying my sister?" she asked.

"You two have a real problem with each other, don't you?" he returned.

"What do I care if you're ... whatever you're doing with her," Tiff said sharply.

"I'm not doing anything with her," Sean said.

"Oh yeah. The lies just keep on coming with you. Not exactly business hours here, Mr. Donely," she said, and for the second time that night, he's affected by the use of his surname. "How many stock portfolios did you discuss with her arms around your neck while you were dancing?"

"You've been watching us," he said.

"At least enough to know that you have been given myself and my date the eye as well," she replied.

Knowing he couldn't exactly dispute that point, Sean changed tactics. "Cheryl and I were talking about you," he said.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure she has my best interests at heart," Tiffany said.

"I think she cares about you," he said, keeping a firm grasp on her waist and trying to maintain eye contact as they continued to dance.

"If you can get underneath that layer of 'Anything you can do I can do better'," she added. "Sleep with her yet?"

"No!" he said.

"Why not? She's beautiful. She's smart."

"I'm not interested."

"Maybe you should be. She made you a lot of money."

"You haven't forgiven me, have you?" Sean asked. "I told you, honey, nothing happened with her in New York. And nothing has happened since you've been gone."

"You know what? It's not even about what may or may not have been going on between you anymore," Tiffany said. "You don't have to fight so hard for something that was never going to work out between us."

"I still want it to work out."

"I'm sorry, but I don't," she said, breaking out of his grasp and going back to Doug, who looks relieved that she's returned. He signals to the waiter for their check.

Sean went back to his table and sat down next to Cheryl.

"You seem a little shell-shocked, you all right?" Cheryl asked.

"I don't understand this at all. How did things gets this bad between us?" he said to himself.

"Maybe you're not as well suited for each other as you think," Cheryl offered.

"We are. Tiffany's the first woman I ..." he stopped, realizing that he was opening up too much to maybe the wrong person.

"I would have loved to have heard the end of that sentence," Cheryl said.

Sean pursed his lips tightly. "Well, you're not going to."

"What about telling the person who needs to know that?"

"I don't think she wants to hear it right now."

"You going to try again?"

"Hell yeah. I'm not giving up this easily," Sean said, watching as Doug put Tiffany's coat on and they walked out of the club. Tiff, her arm wrapped loosely around Doug's, didn't glance in Sean or Cheryl's direction as she exited.

"I had a feeling you were going to say that," Cheryl said ruefully.


	5. Chapter 5

Over the next few weeks, Tiffany spent lots of time with Doug when she wasn't keeping busy at the studio. They had dinners at his place, including a surprise Thanksgiving feast, and occasionally went out on the town. She generally avoided invitations from Robert or Anna, not wanting to spend time with them on the off-chance of seeing Sean or at the very least having to talk about him. Doug was proving to be almost the exact opposite of Sean, putting her ahead of just about everything else in his life.

She was thinking about that fact while prepping for an evening at her apartment when the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Tiffany, it's Anna."

She immediately went on her guard. "Hi Anna, how are you?"

"I'm fine, thanks."

"Duke? Robin?"

"They're fine too. Actually Robin was asking about you, so that's why I'm calling," Anna continued. "We'd like you to come over for dinner on Christmas Eve." There was an awkward pause. "You can bring your doctor friend if you want."

"That's really very nice, but I have to work and Doug and I already have plans after that."

"Maybe you can stop by for a drink somewhere along the way?"

"I'll have to see, I can't make any promises," Tiff said, feeling pressured.

"We'd love to see you, so I please try."

"Thanks, Anna," she said and hung up. Before she could think on it further, there was a knock at her door. She pulled it open to Doug, carrying a bouquet of flowers.

"Good evening, Ms. Hill," he said charmingly.

"Dr. Baxter," she returned and he handed over the flowers. She went to get a vase, filled it with water and arranged them. "Orchids, I love orchids."

"I know," Doug said. "And this..." He presented a bottle of wine, Spotted Chardonnay, also her favorite. She smiled at him slyly, then uncorked the bottle perfectly and poured two glasses.

"There's something I'd like to talk to you about," he said.

"Sure. Let's sit down."

They made themselves comfortable on the couch.

"Tiff, I'd like to invite you home with me for Christmas," he said. "I'd really love for my family to meet you."

She's taken aback. "That's really sweet, but I just can't. I sort of planned on working the whole time. I've given so many people time off at the station. I'm not sure I'll even notice it's a holiday."

"There's no way I can change your mind?" he asked gently.

"I couldn't go back on my word now," she said. "So many people with families who have made plans."

"I understand."

Tiffany sips her wine. "I'll miss you." Doug's raising the glass to his mouth when he hears those words. "Did you think I wouldn't?"

"I wasn't sure," he admitted.

"Well, now you are."

"Right, now I am."

He closes the distance between them, Tiffany puts her glass on the table. He leans over and kisses her, she responds right away.

"I really hate to think of you alone on the holiday," he said.

"I won't be. It's going to be a lot of fun, I think. A lot of people at the station who never get the chance to show what they're going to do. I'm going to order food. It's going to be great."

"Sounds nice."

"Almost as nice as that kiss," she said.

"Not quite that nice," he replies and he moves in for another one.

Anna knocks on the door of Sean's office. He looks up from the batch of papers in front of him. "Yeah?" he says.

"It's me, partner," she said, letting herself in. "Getting anywhere?"

"Absolutely nowhere," he said.

"Your mind somewhere else?" she asked.

"Possibly," he said.

"Oh, I know, you're thinking about the perfect Christmas gift for me," Anna teased. "Don't worry, I'm sure I'll love whatever fabulously expensive trinket you give me."

"You know I don't shop until Christmas Eve," Sean replied with a slight grin.

"You're going to have to start a little early then, you know that we're having dinner on Christmas Eve," she said. "You know, our little dysfunctional family - you, me, Duke, Robin, Robert ... whatever poor hapless woman has crossed your path."

"If you're looking to do a head count, I think it'll just be me," Sean said.

"Really? An opportunist like you letting something as important as Christmas fall through your fingertips? That's not the Sean Donely I know and love."

"Yeah, that guy," he said, shaking his head. "Did you invite Tiffany?"

"I wondered how long it would take before you asked me that." Sean shrugged his shoulders, acting like it wasn't that important. "Yes, I invited her. But she sort of turned me down."

"Sort of?" Sean inquired, grabbing ahold of the indefinite part of the equation.

"She said no," Anna answered. "But then I asked if she could just stop by for a drink and she didn't really say yes or no."

"But she was kind of leaning toward no," he finished.

"Yes. I mean, yes, she kind of said no. Maybe if you..."

"If I asked, I think we'd get a definite no," Sean said.

"Maybe not. Maybe she's just waiting for..." Sean does some waiting of his own. "...you to show you care."

"I tried that, Anna. It didn't work."

"It didn't work a particular time. Doesn't mean it won't work forever."

"She's seeing this other guy now."

"Yeah, I know. The research doctor from General Hospital. The one from before. Well, maybe your memory's not working so good, because I seem to recall her leaving him cold when you got hurt."

"You can only pull that death's doorstep thing so many times."

"OK, what about the fallback position? So to speak," Anna said.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the woman who has been hanging around here so much. She seems mildly interesting."

"Tiffany's sister, Cheryl? I don't think so."

"She's her sister?

"She is," Sean said. "Which puts her off limits."

Anna smiles knowingly. "And why is that?"

"I think I'll take the rest of the afternoon off and do some shopping."

"Ah, plan B, avoidance," Anna chided. "You're a textbook case, Sean."

"I hang around too many smart women," Sean said, pulling his blazer off the coat rack. "I'll see you later."

"I'll prepare the rest of my questions in the meantime," she said, winking at him.

"Can't wait," Sean said, rolling his eyes as he exited.


	6. Chapter 6

It's Christmas Eve. Tiffany's running around the station, trying to do everything for everyone. All the backups - cameramen to on-air talent are nervous, she makes each of them as comfortable as she can so they can work to their utmost ability. The crafts table is decked out for the holidays. Instead of bagels and orange juice, there's a turkey, ham and all the trimmings.

"Ms. Hill, there's a delivery man here," her assistant said.

"Can you sign for it?" she said.

"He won't let me. He says it needs your personal signature or it waits until after the holidays."

"Good lord, what now? It's not like I ordered a new camera," she said, the personal distraction being the one that finally made her lose her disarming demeanor.

She stalks over to the delivery person. "I'm Ms. Hill. Can I help you? We have 10 minutes before we're on the air."

"I'm sorry, I just had something that had to be delivered to you personally," the messenger said.

"OK," she said warily, signing her name on his clipboard. He pulled a box from his canvas bag. "Ummmm, my purse is in my office. Greg? Loan me $5, will you?" she asks her assistant.

"It's all right, I've been taken care of," the messenger said.

She looks at him strangely. "If you say so, well thank you, happy holidays."

"The same to you, ma'am," the man said as he exited.

"Ma'am," Tiffany said to herself, rolling her eyes. "Love being called ma'am." She looks at the package, nicely wrapped in metallic gold paper and a sparkly green ribbon.

"Ms. Hill!" a voice calls from the control room. "We need you to check the edit on the General Hospital festivities."

"I'll be right there," she said. She looked the box over again. "Guess this will have to wait. Greg, go put this in my office, please."

"Right away," he said, rushing off as she went to the control room.

Sean arrives at Anna and Duke's place. He's greeted by Robin's broad grin and a glass of egg nog.

"Merry Christmas, Uncle Sean!" Robin screamed.

"Merry Christmas, Robin," he returned, picking her up and spinning her around. "Don't you look beautiful? Look at these curls."

"What did you bring me? What did you bring me?" she asked.

"Robin! You're not supposed to ask questions like that. One gift after dinner, you know that," Anna chided.

"But I have so many godfathers, I really think we should spread it out more," Robin said.

"She makes an excellent point," Sean said. "And we know she's been a good girl all year."

"Well maybe after dinner," Anna conceded.

"Great! When do we eat?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, when do we eat?" Robert echoed.

"Is it all right if Duke gets here first?" Anna asked.

"Oh, of course," Robert said.

"All right if I turn on the television?" Sean asked.

"We can watch 'Miracle on 34th Street'!" Robin cheered.

"I kind of wanted to see the news for a little while, if that's OK with you, honey, that is," Sean said. Robert and Anna looked at each other knowingly.

"Well, I usually hate the news, but it is Christmas," Robin said. "So it's OK with Mommy, it's OK with me."

"It's OK with Mommy," Anna said.

"I'll do it," Robin said, running over to turn on the TV. "Can we watch Tiffany's station?"

"Sure," Sean said, glad Robin said it for him. Another look between Robert and Anna when Sean's focus on the television intensifies when the camera cuts from a news report back to the studio.

"Christmas is always a special time of year at General Hospital," Tiffany said. "And not just when the patients are visited by members of the New York Yankees. Tomorrow Chief of Staff Steve Hardy will read the traditional Christmas story to all the children and the families. Take it from me, it's always a special moment. And that's always followed by a special visit from Santa Claus. But truth be told, Santa needs some help and there's still time to make donations and make this special for all those who have to be in the hospital at this time of year. We'll be right back with a special report on feeding the homeless on Kelly's."

"And we're out!" the fill-in director said. "Three minutes back."

"Ms. Hill!" "Ms. Hill!" "Ms. Hill!" Three people called for her from three different parts of the studio.

"Remind me never to do this again," Tiffany said to no one in particular.

"Ms. Hill?" her assistant said.

"Yes, Greg," she said.

"Don't ever do this again."

"You're either fired or getting a raise," she said, winking at him as she crossed over to one of the people who had called to her. The others gathered in a makeshift line behind him.

Duke arrives home with a special guest, Cheryl, in tow.

"Ms. Cheryl Stansbury, this is my wife, Anna," he said.

"Nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you," Anna said.

"Really? From whom?" Cheryl asked.

"I'm partners in the detective agency with Sean," Anna replied.

"Oh," Cheryl responded, looking around the room and spotting Sean on the couch with Robin.

"This is a close friend of the family's, Robert Scorpio," Anna said.

"Ms. Stansbury, delighted to meet you," Robert said.

"It's Cheryl, please," she said, enjoying the new eye candy.

"And you know Sean already," Anna continued. "This is my daughter, Robin."

"Why hello, Robin," Cheryl said.

"Ms. Stans-bury," Robin said, repeating what she'd heard.

"It's nice to meet you, Robin, I'm Cheryl. Are you having a nice holiday?"

"Oh yes," Robin exclaimed. "My Daddy's here and I have one of my three godfathers, so it's great!"

"You have three godfathers, lucky girl," Cheryl said.

"Dinner is ready, dudes," Olin said, entering from the living room.

"Sean, can we tear you away from the television for dinner?" Anna asked.

"Of course," Sean said, regretfully turning off the set just as the news was returning from commercial break.

"I get to sit next to Uncle Sean!" Robin said.

"Darn, of all the rotten luck," Cheryl said, smiling at him. "Maybe I'll have more luck with the mistletoe later."

The Laverys and their friends sit down to the meal.

Twenty minutes later, a thoroughly exhausted Tiffany enters her office. She slumps down in her chair. The box is on her desk.

"Oh, forgot all about this," she said. "That was really sweet of Doug."

She picks it up, fingers the ribbon and pulls it and the box open. Inside is a gorgeous gold and emerald necklace. Tiffany's mouth opens unconsciously. "This is incredible. I can't believe he would buy me this and just send it over without even mentioning it. No note or anything. Doesn't have to brag about what a special man he is."

She runs it through her fingers, then deftly puts it around her neck. She pulls out a mirror from her drawer and just stares at it. "He must really care about me."

Feeling emboldened by the gesture, Tiffany grabs her coat and purse and leaves the office in a hurry.


	7. Chapter 7

Tiffany rings the Laverys' doorbell, then runs her hand over her new necklace to strengthen her resolve.

"Tiffany! So good to see you, Merry Christmas," a surprised Anna exclaimed. "I really didn't think you would make it."

At least two heads whipped around to see the new visitor.

"I didn't either, but I was on my way home, and I was thinking after my day that I kind of deserved a little holiday cheer. Especially since I need to be at General Hospital first thing tomorrow for the big party."

"Tiffany, hi!" Robin said, happy to have another guest ... and another present. Tiff handed over a big box that Robin had trouble carrying. "I want to open this one now."

"What happened to wanting to open your godfather's present," Anna said.

"We said maybe this once I could open two," Robin exclaimed.

"Did we say that?"

"We did," Robin said and waddled off with her box. "Look who's here, Uncle Sean."

Sean already knew. He got to his feet as Tiffany gave Anna her coat and turned around to face him. His eyes went right to her neckline.

"Lovely piece of jewelry," he said admiringly.

"Yes, it is," she responded.

"Costume jewelry is in right now, isn't it?" Cheryl said as she joined them.

"One would think you would know the difference between fake and real," Tiffany sniped.

"True, since I saw so much of it growing up," Cheryl returned.

"It's real," Tiffany said.

"Glad something is," Cheryl said and flounced off in Robert's direction.

"Maybe this was a mistake," Tiff said, turning to leave.

"Wait," Sean said.

She turned back to him and waited for him to say more.

"Where's the good doctor?" he asked.

"With his family. ... He invited me. ... I couldn't get away," she stammered in fits and starts.

Across the room, Robin tore at the wrapping on the box. "It's a So Soft Pony! I wanted one of these so bad, thank you!" She ripped it out of the carton and hugged it.

"How did you find that?" Anna asked. "I felt like the worst detective in the world trying to find one of those."

"I'm not at liberty to reveal my source," Tiff said teasingly.

"It's wonderful, I think you just made her Christmas," Anna said.

"I'm glad. Every little girl should get what she wants at this time of year," Tiffany said, and she could feel Sean's high-powered gaze focused intently upon her.

"Can I get you some food? We still have quite a bit left over," Anna said.

"No, I ate at the station. I really should be going," Tiffany said. "I just wanted to give Robin her present and say Merry Christmas to everyone."

"I wish you'd stay, we still have a pumpkin pie that Olin made and the coffee is on," Anna said.

"I really can't. But thank you." She turned to say her goodbyes to Robin, Robert and Duke. Robin stopped hugging her pony long enough to give just as strong a hug to Tiff. Robert planted a kiss on her and she and Duke hugged warmly.

"Are you going to say something to her?" Anna asked Sean in a low voice.

"I just don't know what to say," he said.

"Something is better than nothing," Anna responded.

Tiffany took a deep breath and went over to her sister. "Merry Christmas, Cheryl Ann."

Cheryl looked taken aback for a second, but recovered quickly. "I almost think you really mean that."

"I do. You're the only sister I've got, right?"

"I suppose so. Merry Christmas, Tiff."

Tiffany's eyes met Sean's. "I hope everyone has a nice holiday." She crossed to the door and picked up her coat. Duke moved to help her on with it, then gave her a little peck on the cheek.

"Mistletoe," he said with uncharacteristic shyness.

"Good night," she said.

"Good night," he said, opening the door as she exited.

Sean watched for a moment, than quickly crossed to the door and followed her out. "Tiffany?"

"Yes?" she asked without turning around.

"Your necklace. ..."

"What about it?"

"It didn't come from him."

Tiffany digested that information and turned to face him. "You? ... Why?"

"I actually bought that a while ago, when we ... were still together."

"I can't accept it then," she said, fumbling to try to take it off in the cold night air.

"You have to, it's yours."

"It's too much. It wouldn't be right."

"It's right. It looks beautiful on you, just like I knew it would when I bought it," he said.

"There are a million other girls you could give it to."

"It's used now," he quipped, then got serious. "Please, I want you to have it. No strings attached. Every woman should have what she wants for Christmas, you said it yourself."

"But..."

"No buts about it. I want you to have it."

"I don't feel like I should."

He moves closer to her and runs his finger along the chain and the emeralds. She's getting chills that now have nothing to do with being outside.

"This necklace, it has to be worn by someone who won't be overpowered by it. The way I see it, you're the only one who can pull it off," he said.

She's affected by his words more than she wanted to admit.

"Just say thank you, and that'll be that," he said.

"Thank you," she said, struggling to get the two words out.

"You're welcome," he said, smiling one of those patented Sean Donely smiles that made the chills go away. "Merry Christmas, Tiffany."

"Merry Christmas, Sean." She touched her neck where his hand had just been, gave him another smile of thanks and hurried off.

He watched her go, a little irritated with himself for not saying more.


	8. Chapter 8

It's early Christmas morning. Tiffany, dressed in green, is running around her apartment and trying to make sure she hasn't forgotten anything. She looks in the mirror.

"I could really use a necklace," she said. She goes over to her jewelry case, looks at the box that she received the previous day and opens it. The emeralds sparkled at her. "Well it certainly matches, but I don't think it would send the right message. She takes out a chunky gold necklace and quickly fastens that. Her phone rings.

"Don't have time! Don't have time!" she said, making time anyway to go pick it up. "Yellow," she said, her accent slipping out.

"Morning, Merry Christmas," came the chipper voice at the other end.

"Doug, hi! Merry Christmas. I really have to run though, can I call you after I get back to the studio?"

"You're going to General Hospital now?" he asked.

"Yeah, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Steve Hardy's story," she said.

"Great, do me a favor and make it a point to see Santa Claus."

"Well, of course, I'll see Santa Claus, can't have a report on this day of all days without him."

"OK, good," he said. "I wish I could be there. I miss you."

"I miss you too," she said. "Gotta run, bye."

She hung up, grabbed her keys and purse and ran out of the apartment.

Tiffany gave orders to her crew and then stood back and let them do the work. Steve Hardy told the story of the birth of the baby Jesus with the children seated all around him and even the nurses, doctors and parents at the hospital were enthralled. Tiff got a lump in her throat herself, not just at the story, but at the sight of all of them there in the room.

Robin led the Christmas parade with everyone singing and being joyful into the boardroom, where Santa Claus arrived and doled out presents to all the children. Tiffany leaned back against the wall and soaked it all in. When the last gift was given out, she gestured to her cub reporter to interview Santa Claus. The young reporter seemed nervous, but got through it without having to cut.

"How'd I do, Ms. Hill?" she asked when she bounced off.

"You did very well, Stacey. Why don't you take it back to the station and see what you can put together?"

"Me?"

"Of course. I think you can handle it. Rob will help you. Just remember..."

"I know - don't play it too sappy and don't play it too straight."

"You've come a long way in a short time, you're very good."

Stacey beamed even wider and bounced out of the room.

"Nice work, Dan ... I mean Santa," Tiffany said when Dan Rooney came up to her.

"I could say the same to you. I don't think there's a person happier about their Christmas gift in this room," he said.

"She'll be pushing me off the news desk before I know it," Tiff sighed.

"I have something that might take your mind off that, at least for today," Dan said, pulling a present from out of the inner lining of his costume.

"For me?"

"A certain young doctor who couldn't be here today wanted to make sure you had a happy holiday," Dan said.

"Thank you very much," she said, kissing Dan on the cheek and giving him a playful tickle under the chin.

"And now that I've had my Christmas wish fulfilled, I must be getting back to the North Pole, or at least out of this costume. Merry Christmas," he said.

"Merry Christmas, Santa," Tiffany said.

She looked down at the box as he left the room and thought about how strange it was that she was looking at the same size box two days in a row. She tugged at the bow and pulled back the wrapping. Another velvety jewelry box. She cautiously opened it, and saw a beautiful strand of pearls. She caught her breath for the second time in two days. This box had a note, though. "You don't know how much I wish I could be there and I know I should be waiting to say this in person, but I love you."

Tiffany read the last part over and over again and her eyes filled with tears. She wasn't quite sure why. She tucked the box into her purse, holding on to the note and left the boardroom.

A few hours later she was in her office, with an open bottle of champagne. The necklace box was open on her desk and Doug's note, now crumpled, still in her hand. She couldn't get over it. Her phone rang.

"Tiffany something-or-other," she said in a slightly tipsy but definitely distracted voice.

"Sounds like your Christmas has gone well," Doug said at the other end of the line.

"Doug, you incredible romantic fool, how could you do that to me?"

"Which 'that' are we talking about specifically?"

"The pearls ... the words in your note ... they're beautiful."

"Which is beautiful?" Doug said, having trouble discerning which she meant.

"Both ... all of them. I can't believe you did that."

"I can't believe I did either. I should have told you before I left. I probably should have told you the day I met you because I'm pretty sure I've been in love with you since I laid eyes on you."

Tiffany slumped back in her chair, overwhelmed. "I am sure I don't deserve you."

"You're wrong. You do. So you liked them?"

"Which?"

"Either ... or both."

"Yes. I loved the pearls. But your words, I'm not sure I even have one to describe what that means to me."

"Well, maybe you can show me on New Year's."

"You'll be back New Year's Eve?" she asked.

"There's no way I'm ringing in 1988 without you in my arms."

"Sounds wonderful. You know General Hospital is having a blind date auction to raise money for the pediatrics wing that night. Steve Hardy roped me in right after telling the Christmas story. The man certainly knows how to play his cards all right."

"There's definitely a reason why he's been chief of staff for so long," Doug said. "All right, I'll be back in time to bid on your affections, my love."

Tiffany smiled at the words. "Give your family my best."

"I already did, they absolutely loved the sweet potato pie," he said.

"I'm glad."

"I love you," he said.

"I love you," she repeated back, then hung up the phone and thought about what she just said. She took another swig of champagne.


	9. Chapter 9

It's New Year's Eve and the snow is coming down in droves, but most of Port Charles has still turned out for the pediatric wing benefit at Duke's. Tiffany is dressed to the hilt like a movie star in a strapless form-fitting black dress and white satin gloves that go up to her elbows. Her hair is sleek and straight, pulled back off her face with the silky blonde strands flowing down the back perfectly. The strand of pearls Doug gave her for Christmas are around her neck.

Sean enters, pulling off his coat and brushing snowflakes off his head. He's very dapper in black tux with an off-white shirt that sets him apart from the other penguins in the room. He surveys the room, stopping when he sees Tiffany's hourglass figure from the back. She's talking with the Hardys. A waiter stops beside him with a tray of champagne flutes, he takes two and nods to the man than crosses over to the group.

"Dr. Hardy, I think you're the only one in the world who could get this group of people to brave this storm," Sean said. "Mrs. Hardy, you're looking particularly lovely tonight."

"Thank you, Mr. Donely," Audrey said.

"We'll be starting the auction in about an hour," Steve said. "So there's time for you to rub some elbows, get some potential bidders to loosen their wallets."

"What's this about an auction?" Sean interjected.

"Your lady has graciously agreed to be one of our bachelorettes in the name of our pediatric center," Steve said.

"Uh, darling," Audrey interrupted.

"Don't worry, Sean, everything is above board and on the up and up, the date will take place here over the course of the evening" Steve continued.

"Sweetheart," Audrey tried again.

"What is it, dear?" Steve said.

"I think what your wife is so delicately trying to tell you, Dr. Hardy, is that Sean and I are no longer together," Tiffany said.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know," Steve replied.

"That's all right," Tiffany said.

"She's actually seeing one of your doctors now, Doug Baxter," Sean added. An irritated Tiff looked over at him.

"Oh, Doug is a fine young doctor," Steve said. "Due back any day now."

"Yes, it was supposed to be here today, but as you can see from the looks of things out there, I'm sure he'll be delayed," Tiff said.

"I'm sure he'll be back before you know it," Audrey said. "Honey, I think they're playing our song."

"She's very graceful, isn't she?" Steve said admiringly. "Excuse us, please."

"Of course," Sean said. He handed his extra glass of champagne to Tiffany.

"Was that entirely necessary?" Tiff said, still miffed.

"I just thought I'd let him know," Sean replied.

"Apparently Steve doesn't bother himself with the latest gossip, so I'm pretty sure it could have gone left unsaid," Tiffany said.

"Just making conversation," he said.

"Go make it somewhere else," she said with annoyance in her voice.

Sean's eyes drift down to her neck. "He give you those pearls?"

Tiffany doesn't answer.

"They look lovely," he said. "In fact, I think their value is greatly appreciated by the fact that they are lying against your skin. You look luminescent."

"Thank you," she said.

"Would you like to dance?"

"Not particularly. Looks like there are a lot of other single women here. Then again, you do prefer a challenge, right?"

"My preferences don't seem to be too high on your list of late," Sean said.

"That sometimes happens when people break up," Tiffany retorted.

"I didn't want to break up."

"Well, you sure as hell didn't want to be together. Will you excuse me, please?" She moved away from him before he could answer.

Cheryl, dressed in a flashy metallic gown almost diametrically opposed to what her sister was wearing, sidled up to Sean. "You want her more now that you can't have her, don't you?"

"Why is everyone else trying to sort out my motivations?" Sean said, his own irritation starting to bubble to the surface.

"Probably because you're so damn interesting," she purred.

"That answer just won you a dance," Sean said, literally steering the conversation to the dance floor.

About an hour later, the bachelorette auction got underway. As one after another of the women were scooped up by eager-eyed suitors, Tiffany hoped against hope that Doug would show up. But he didn't.

"Our next young lady is a bit of a legend here in Port Charles," Steve said. "She's had a successful movie career - I know I personally love "Godzilla's Girlfriend" even if she doesn't - and now she runs our local television station, WLPC. Ms. Tiffany Hill."

Tiffany was actually a little nervous as she stepped up to the stage, but her natural instinct took over and she worked the crowd as the bidding got underway.

"We'll start off at $5,000," Steve said. "Do I hear five..."

Before he could finish the sentence, an eager young man had raised his hand. "Six?" Steve continued.

"Six!" came a shout from the croud. "Seven?" Steve asked. Edward Quartermaine raised his hand. "Thank you, Edward, although Lila might have something to say about that," Steve replied and the assembled crowd laughed. "How about eight?"

"Eight!" the first bidder was back in. "Will anyone go up to $10,000, it's a great cause," Steve said.

"Ten!" came the second bidder.

"How about 12?" Steve asked. The room fell silent, Tiffany held her breath. "Ten going once, going twice..."

"How about 100?" Sean yelled from the back of the room.

Steve looked confused, particularly in the light of what Audrey and Tiffany had said earlier. "Mr. Donely, your bid is $100,000?"

"That's right. I think that's a fair price," Sean said his eyes glued on Tiff. She was in shock, her pulse was beating a mile a minute.

"I think we're done here," Steve said. "$100,000 for our pediatrics wing courtesy of Sean Donely. Sold! So to speak. And thank you, Mr. Donely. That wraps up our auction, if our winning bidders would please settle their accounts, we can get your evenings under way. Waiters will be taking special orders for all our couples, so let's eat, drink and be merry."

The assembled crowd watched. Tiffany, still standing on the stage, watched Sean go over to a beaming Audrey and take out his checkbook.


	10. Chapter 10

Sean returned from paying his tab and escorted Tiffany to their table, coincidentally the same one she had sat at with Doug a few weeks earlier. He pulled out her chair and she sat, then he slid into his seat across from her.

"I've taken the liberty of ordering for us, I hope you don't mind," he said.

"Why would I mind? It's all in the name of charity, right?" she said.

"Right. But you still don't understand why I did that."

"I know why I think you did," she said.

"That's a start," he said. "OK, why?"

"You like to be the one to end things, not the endee," she said.

"Endee. Not familiar with that word."

"So I figured."

"But that's not why," he continued. She looked at him questioningly. "Aside from the fact that it's a great cause, I couldn't stand to see those jokers nickel and dime-ing you."

"Ten thousand dollars is an awful lot of nickels," she said.

"You're worth more than that," he said.

"I don't think I was being appraised."

Sean chuckled at her sentiment, but something was still gnawing at him. "What did I do to you?" he asked himself.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I heard the question," Tiffany said.

"I'm looking for that woman I used to know who loved life. She tried to get the most out of every minute. She was funny and sassy and I really enjoyed being around her."

"For a while you did, and then you cheated," she said.

"I told you I didn't," he replied.

"Whether or not I believe that, you were unfaithful in 100 little ways. Always with your eye out for the next beautiful woman, always choosing work over me. But I don't hold any grudges about that, Sean, I really don't. It didn't work out for us. You are who you are. I'm sure I wouldn't have wanted you to change, to turn into Mr. Right overnight."

"I'd like to go back to when we were friends," he said.

"We're friends," she shrugged, trying to convince herself as much as him.

"Would you like to dance, friend?" he asked.

Tiffany knew she had to. She nodded, he got up from his chair and held his arm out to her. She got up and they walked to the dance floor. He put his hand around her waist, shifting it slowly down until it settled on her hip and they began to dance.

"That's friendly all right," she said.

Sean took that as a signal that he needed to do better, so he pulled her body against his.

"We were very close," he said.

"I thought so," she said.

"I miss you," he said.

"I'm right here," she responded.

"I miss ... how you let your guard down ... how you say whatever comes into your mind ... how you show people you care about them. I guess 'he' gets all that now. I hope he appreciates it."

"I think he does," she said, responding to the final part and not all the words preceding it that were making her head spin.

"And so he gave you this necklace," Sean said, letting go of her hand so he could trace the necklace across her body.

Tiff was finding it hard to breathe. She broke away from him and ran through the door onto the terrace, which was starting to pile up with snow.

"You love this, don't you?" she said when she could feel him in the doorway.

"I don't. I don't know how to make it right."

"We're past that point."

"How can you say that when we're both feeling so... when we're both just feeling," he said. "You can't even look at me."

She turned around, looked him in the eyes and couldn't help but be affected. He moved closer to her.

"Tell me, do you think my donation is worth one kiss?" he asked.

"I suppose it would be fair," she said.

He pulled her to him again like when they were dancing, only this time his grip was impossibly urgent and caressing at the same time. She felt like a magnet being irresistibly drawn closer and closer.

"You're so damn beautiful," he said.

She thought the same thing about him, but didn't say it back. His lips reached hers and slowly parted. It was so familiar, so intense, she didn't feel the cold or the snow falling on them at all. He deepened the kiss, she unconsciously moved closer to him and they held on to each other through three, four, five, maybe six kisses before she got a hold of her senses and backed off.

"Still a great kisser," said Sean, a little out of sorts from it himself.

"You think that mechanism was going to be broken?"

He smiled at her, glad to see some of her old spirit again. "Wanna go again?"

"Just how far do you think $100,000 is going to get you?"

"Can't wait to find out." He moved closer to her again, but she eluded him.

"I think we should go back inside," she said defensively. "Your gourmet meal is probably ready by now."

"I imagine so," he said, following her in.

They were seated back at their table when the waiter brought over a big covered platter. He lifted the top and presented ... flautas - smalled rolled-up tortillas with chicken inside them.

"Hope you don't mind some finger food," Sean said with a smile.

"Of course not," Tiffany said, surprised but not deterred. She peeled off each of her clothes with Sean watching her every movement.

The waiter filled their champagne glasses. Sean lifted his to hers, they clinked and drank. She put the glass down, picked up a tortilla and crunched it. The juice ran down the side of her finger, she licked it off, which just entranced Sean further.

"Delicious," she said.

"Yes," he echoed while taking a bite of his own.

She took another bite, licking her lips to ensure that she didn't leave any remnant behind.

Sean smiled and continued to eat as well.

After their meal, there was more dancing with Sean staying as close to Tiffany as he could. On the dais, Duke - with Anna by his side - was doing the countdown to the new year. Sean was preparing to move in for the proverbial kill.

"Ten ... nine ... eight ... seven ... six ..."

Tiffany's heart was beating fast in anticipation. As Duke and the crowd yelled out "five," Doug raced into the room and over to her.

"I don't believe it," she exclaimed.

"Two ... one ... Happy New Year!" the crowd yelled.

"I told you I would get here no matter what," Doug said and he pulled Tiffany into a kiss. Sean watched for as long as he could stand it and then looked away as the confetti and streamers fell around them.


	11. Chapter 11

As the New Year's party continues at Duke, Tiffany is still in Doug's arms. She's overwhelmed by this latest turn of events in a very roller-coaster evening. Doug pulls back and looks her over.

"You're absolutely ravishing," Doug said.

"Thanks," Tiffany said. "I still can't believe you made it."

"Me either, to be honest," Doug said. "I just kept thinking about having my woman in my arms when the clock struck midnight. Sort of like the ending of one of your movies, I guess."

Tiffany managed a warm smile.

"So how did the auction go?" he said.

"Very well for General Hospital," she said.

"And how much did you net the very worthy cause?" Doug asked.

She took a deep breath. "$100,000."

"One hundred grand. Who...?" Doug continued, his voice trailing off when he put the pieces together. "Sean, right?"

Tiffany bit her lip and nodded.

"I guess I'm infringing on his time then," Doug said.

"It's all right," she said.

Doug stepped back and saw Sean 10 feet away. "I'm sorry to bust in on your 'date'," he said.

"My time's up," Sean said graciously.

"I think if we're going to get you home we should probably leave now," Doug said.

Tiffany nodded. She looked at Sean and had no idea what to say, so she just offered a "good night" and let Doug lead her out. Sean crossed to the bar. He put his champagne glass down and ordered a scotch and water. Cheryl reappeared.

"Evening didn't turn out like you hoped?" she asked.

"It was fine," Sean said, playing his cards close to his vest.

"Could I interest you in a nightcap?" Cheryl responded.

Sean picked up his new glass. "Already have one."

Doug unlocked the door to his brownstone amidst a heavy snowfall and he and Tiffany walked in to the empty home.

"Sure this is where you want to be?" he asked. "In about half an hour, I'm not sure you'll have a choice any more."

"I'm sure," she said.

"Let me get a fire started, it's a little chilly in here," he said.

Tiffany kept on her coat and sat on the sofa as Doug worked about getting the fire going.

"You're awfully quiet," he said.

"It's been a long night," she answered.

"Do you want to tell me about it?" he asked.

"Nothing really to tell. How was Christmas at your parents'?"

"It was nice. Got to see everyone, they all asked about you. Mom's absolutely thrilled, she's looking forward to meeting the woman in my life," he said.

"Sounds perfect," she said.

"Except for not having you there, it was pretty close," Doug said. He dusted off his hands and crossed over to her.

"Can I get you a drink or something?" he asked.

"No, I think I've had enough," she replied.

"Anything?"

"Just you."

"That you already have. Come here," he said, helping her to her feet. He spread the blanket over the couch on the floor near the fire. She took off her coat and put it on the sofa.

"The pearls look absolutely beautiful on you," he said admiringly.

"I never got to thank you properly for them," she said, and she moved in to kiss him.

"Let's sit down here by the fire," he said when they separated. They knelt down, staying close to each other. "I owe you something."

"You don't owe me anything at all," she said.

"Just this - I love you, Tiffany Hill," Doug said. "I should have waited to tell you in person, I know. When I wrote the note and put it in the box, it just kind of came out that way." It warmed her heart almost as much as the fire.

"I love you," she said.

"Are you sure?" he added. "I don't want you to feel pressure because I said it. I just wanted you to know."

"I'm sure," she said even though she wasn't. She still moved in to kiss him again and again because it's what she thought she needed to do.

"We can go upstairs," he said.

"No need," she said, peeling off his coat and starting to unbutton his shirt.

"I'm definitely glad I made it home," he said.

"Me too," she replied genuinely as he slowly took off her glove and kissed his way up her arm.

He kissed along her cheek, up to her earlobe and back to her lips as Tiffany took the sensation in. Then he did the same with her other glove. This time, he leaned behind her so he could unzip her dress. As she shimmied out of it, he drank the sight of her in. She pulled him to her by his open shirt and they sank to the floor in front of the roaring fire.

Sean entered Cheryl's penthouse, still holding his glass.

"Looks like you're stuck here," she said. "Don't worry, I can make it comfortable for you."

He didn't resist when Cheryl moved in for a kiss, soft at first but increasingly insistent on her part.

"My sister is an idiot," she said when they separated.

Sean sobered up in a hurry. So much so that he backed away when Cheryl tried for another kiss.

"Come on, Sean. She's probably doing more than that with the hunky doctor right now."

Sean crossed to the bar to pour himself another drink. He drank half the glass in one gulp, then poured more.

"That's the way it's going to be. OK. Spare blanket and pillow in the hallway closet. Sofa's over there. I'll be in there if you need me," she said, moving to the bedroom. "Otherwise I'll see you in the morning."

Sean nodded and sank down on the couch.

"1988 is starting off great," he said.


	12. Chapter 12

Tiffany awoke the next morning to the sounds of Doug rebuilding the fire. She watches his naked form stealthily adding the firewood and trying to be as quiet as he could and a smile crosses her face.

"Morning," she said dreamily.

"Oh, morning," he said, startled and a little disappointed that he woke her. He finishes adding the last pieces and joins her back on the blanket. "I didn't want to wake you."

"It's all right, I enjoyed the show," she said.

He plants a couple sweet kisses on her and then pulls back to look at her, wearing only his necklace.

"You look so beautiful," he said, running his hand down one of her arms and then across to the pearls. "You know, I have to admit when I bought these, I pictured what you might look like wearing just them and nothing else."

"And?"

"And ... I have to admit it still doesn't compare with the real thing," he said, splaying kisses across her collarbone.

She smiles again as she looks into his eyes. "How could I not fall in love with you?" she said.

"I was hoping that would be the case," he said. Doug cradles her in his arms and lowers her back to the blanket.

Cheryl bursts out of her bedroom all full of vim and vigor.

"Morning! Rise and shine, Sean!" she said. "There's a blanket of snow covering everything, I think it's a perfect time to be frolicking outside. At least to start with."

She finally looks over to the couch, the blanket is folded neatly with the pillow on top of it and Sean nowhere to be found. She sighs heavily and shakes her head. "Maybe Alan Quartermaine will come out and play with me."

In Doug's brownstone, Doug and Tiffany are hopelessly intwined and enjoying the fire.

"You don't know how much I hate to say this, but I really have to get out there and start shoveling the sidewalks," he said.

"Ohhhhhh, no," she said, disappointed. "I kind of wanted to stay here forever."

"Me too," he said. "But there will be people trying to make their way around town soon enough and I definitely don't want to be the only one on my block who hasn't shoveled."

"Always the good samaritan," she said. "OK, I'll help."

Doug looks at her, surprised. "You will?"

"I wouldn't want this to get around, but I'm from Tennessee, and if you think sidewalks are bad, you should try making a path between the house and the barn at 4 a.m."

"Always surprising me," he said admiringly. "Just one problem."

"Which is?" she asked.

"All you have here is that gorgeous dress that I loved peeling off you last night, not quite the appropriate gloves and open-toed shoes."

"I can wear some of your clothes," she said.

"And the shoes?"

"If you've got an extra pair of boots, I can always stuff a sock into the toe end. That's what I used to do with Daddy's," she said proudly.

Doug shakes his head and chuckles. "I swear you look like you're about 15 years old right now."

"Then what we did together last night would definitely be illegal," Tiffany laughed. "And my Daddy would probably be coming after you with a shotgun."

"I wouldn't blame him," he said, pulling her into a kiss.

They finally make their way outside half an hour or so later, with Tiff decked out in a heavy red plaid coat with a work shirt, jeans and long johns underneath. She wound up not needing to put the sock in the toe of the boots, but they are still rather big on her, even with a couple of pairs of heavy socks on. Doug hands her a shovel and the two of them get to work at opposite sides of the sidewalk, working their way toward the middle.

They bump into each others' backsides when they get to the center, and when Tiffany tries to maintain her balance, one boot trips over the other and she falls face first into the pile of snow on the lawn.

"Whoa! Are you all right?" Doug said, dropping the shovel and rushing to her side.

Tiffany pulls herself up and brushes the snow off her face. "I'm fine, but you're not."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

She grabs a heaping handful of snow and dumps it over Doug's head.

"You little minx!" he yelled and pins her arms to the ground so she couldn't do it again.

Walking down the street, Sean stops and watches the two of them from a distance. Tiffany squirms free and races around the three feet of snow on the lawn as best she could in his boots. Doug tackles her and this time keeps her down by pinning his whole body on her.

"That's not fair," she squealed.

Sean is still watching from his vantage point with a pained look on his face. He turns away when Doug starts kissing Tiffany and she wraps her arms around him tightly. He walks down the street slowly, not looking back.

A few hours later, Tiffany's at the TV station, pretty much on cloud nine and enjoying life. She's not letting anything get to her - mobile news van trapped in a snowbank, people who can't get to work, nothing. She wraps up the 6 p,m, broadcast in chipper fashion.

"Remember to be safe out there and like my Daddy always said, don't eat the yellow snow," she said and the producer cut to the closing credits.

"Don't eat the yellow snow?" her assistant asked as they walked toward her office.

"It's good advice," she said.

"I would hope that the viewing audience would know that by now," Greg replied.

"There's always a chance that one or two don't. And if I can spare even one poor soul, I mean to do it," she said.

"You are awfully cheery today," he said.

"It's the new year. Everything's new, everything's fresh. I don't think anything could get me down today," she said as she swung open the door to her office and saw Sean standing there. She shook her head almost imperceptibly. "Except for this."

It takes a couple seconds for Tiff to refocus her thoughts. "You go get some dinner. If you go to Kelly's, bring me back some stew."

"Sure thing, Ms. Hill," he said before departing.

She enters the office, leaving the door open, and goes to sit down at her desk.

"Not going to acknowledge my existence? It really is out with the old, in with the new," Sean said.

"What do you want, Sean?"

"Specifically or figuratively?"

"Whichever will get you out of here sooner," she sighed.

"I want to address a few issues," he said.

"Such as?"

"Such as last night."

"Last night?" she echoed. "Last night, I went home with a man who loves me, who puts me in front of everything else. You may find it hard to grasp that particular concept, but he doesn't."

"Last night you were also in my arms kissing me," he said.

"I beg your pardon. You were kissing me," she corrected.

"I don't think I even need to remind you that you were kissing back, since we both felt it through every nerve ending in our bodies," he said.

"OK, we don't have a problem in the kissing department. It's just every other department that we have issues in."

"And you feel comfortable with 'him' in every other department?" Sean asked, not really wanting the answer.

"Yes, I do," she said truthfully.

"So you don't mind was missing."

"Nothing is missing."

"You can tell yourself that's the case, you can tell him, you can tell me, I still won't believe you," Sean said.

"You can't build a relationship on attraction. We tried. We failed."

He crosses to her and pulls her up from the chair. The air between them is heavily charged.

"That's not all there is between us, and you know that too. I care about you very deeply," he said intensely.

"I'm happy right now, Sean," she responded. "So if you care about me sooooooo much, why doesn't that matter to you?"

Sean doesn't have a quick answer to that. Tiffany's phone rings, she breaks free of his grasp and answers it.

"Tiffany Hill," she said firmly. "Hi, Doug. ... Yes, I'm doing fine here. ... No, you don't have to, someone's getting some dinner for me. Yeah, I'll come by after the 11 o'clock. ... I miss you too."

Sean picks his coat up off the back of the chair and moves to the door. He looks back at her, she's purposefully not looking over at him. He leaves, closing the door quietly behind him. Tiffany exhales as she continues to talk on the phone.


	13. Chapter 13

Tiffany didn't see Sean again over the next few weeks, but she saw quite a bit of Doug. In fact, she stayed at his place with regularity. He started making space for her in the drawers and the closet, and they settled into a nice routine.

They made it a priority to go out two or three nights a week, and not to talk about work when they did. So Tiff was dressed to the nines for dinner at Duke's, wearing a royal blue dress when Doug arrived home.

"Wow, you look fabulous as usual," he said, stopping for the usual "welcome home" kiss. "I feel severely underdressed."

"I like it when you're severely underdressed," she said with a crooked smile.

"Uh uh uh, we're going out and that's that," he replied. "Gotta show all those other guys what they're missing. Just let me run upstairs and grab a different shirt, tie and jacket."

"OK, but I'll only wait five minutes and then I'm coming up to maul you, so you better make it snappy," she said.

"I'm not sure if that's going to help or hinder the process," he said, winking at her as he ascended the stairs.

Tiffany looked at herself in the mirror next to the closet by the staircase. Everything was in place, but somehow she felt not quite right. She tugged on a wave framing her face and it fell out of position around her ear and straight down against her cheek.

"What are you messing with it for?" she asked herself. And suddenly she felt like she was asking about more than just hair.

A few minutes later, Doug rejoined her, wearing a pale gray jacket that complemented her outfit without calling attention to his own. They set off for Duke's.

At the club, Sean's having a drink at the bar when Cheryl sidles up.

"Buy a lady a drink?" she asks.

"Of course, what'll it be?"

"Red wine," she said.

"A glass of your finest cabernet sauvignon, please," Sean says to the bartender. "Care to sit?" he asked Cheryl.

"How about if we grab a table? I hate drinking on an empty stomach. In fact, I hate doing most anything on an empty stomach."

"Ah," Sean said.

"That is, unless you're busy," Cheryl added.

"Footloose and fancy free," he said.

"Excellent," Cheryl said, clinking his glass with hers.

Tiffany and Doug entered the club, Angel led them to a table.

"Ah, things got a little more interesting," Cheryl said.

Sean wasn't sure what she meant until he got a glimpse of the couple.

"Fight or flight, Sean?" Cheryl asked, really interested in his response.

"Neither," he said and led Cheryl to a table across the room. He pulled out the chair that faced the other way for her, then slipped into the one facing Tiffany and Doug.

"I can read a lot into which chair you selected," Cheryl said.

"Please don't. It's old WSB trick, put your back to the least amount of the room possible."

"Ohhhhh," Cheryl said, completely dubious of that explanation.

Over at their table, Tiffany was watching Cheryl with Sean. In her mind she was trying to figure out why that was. Did she have a problem seeing her sister with Sean or vice versa? She was mulling that over when Doug interrupted her train of thought.

"Hello? Earth to Tiffany?" he asked.

"Oh, sorry, was somewhere else," she said apologetically.

"Yeah, over there, with your sister?" he continued.

"It's so weird having her around," Tiffany said. "I mean it has been years and years since we've seen each other and now I see her almost every other day it seems."

"Sure that's it?" he inquired.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, is it just the fact of her or the company she is keeping as well?"

"I believe I do a pretty good job of showing you every night who the man I'm thinking about is," she said.

"Absolutely you do," Doug replied. "But you said yourself, you and your sister were kind of competitive. And I don't think you would be out of line for being bothered by her rubbing ... elbows ... with a former flame."

Tiffany doesn't know how to respond to that, mostly because she's not sure of her own feelings. "How about we dance?" she asked.

"Nothing I'd like to do more ... while we're here at the club anyway," Doug said, trying to charm his way out of irritating her. He helps her to her feet, leads her to the dance floor, circles his arm around her waist and begins to dance with her.

Duke doesn't appear to be himself. He crosses over to Sean at his table.

"Sean, I was wondering if you could exert some WSB pull on the phone company to get someone out to the house. I don't like Anna not being able to use the phone, especially with Filomena having been sick."

"Of course, not a problem," he said.

Sean follows Duke to his office, Tiffany's brow furrows when she sees him go.

"Hello sister," Cheryl said, calling out to them.

Tiffany mulls over whether she wants to acknowledge she heard her sister at all. Her curiosity gets the better of her.

"Hello, Cheryl Ann," she said. "Have you met Doug Baxter?"

"I've seen him around but we haven't been formally introduced," Cheryl said disarmingly. "I'm Tiffany's YOUNGER sister, Cheryl Stansbury."

She held out her hand to Doug. He touched it in a gracious manner rather than leaning over to kiss it. "A pleasure," he said."

"For me as well," Cheryl purred.

"Put it in park, sis," Tiff said.

"You're right, maybe I should save some for Sean," Cheryl said.

Upstairs, Duke's getting a phone call about Robin's dog being at the shelter.

"Something's wrong," he told Sean as he hung up. "Robin never leaves that dog out. I'm going over there."

"I'll come with you," Sean said.

The two men rush out of the office and through the club determinedly. Tiffany sees them go and is visibly concerned about what might be wrong. 


	14. Chapter 14

Duke and Sean have returned to his home to find Filomena fatally injured and Robin catatonic. Sean calls the police and when Captain Lewis arrives he tells him that he thinks "The Snowman," who had been sending threatening letters to Robert. Duke calls Angel at the club to tell him he won't be back because of what happened.

Tiffany sees an increasingly uncomfortable Angel on the phone.

"If you'll excuse me a minute, I want to see what that's all about," Tiffany said to Doug and Cheryl.

"Of course," Doug said as she got up and went over to Angel.

"I wonder what's up," Cheryl said, knowing her sister wouldn't leave her alone with her man if there wasn't a problem.

"Angel, what's going on?" Tiffany asked point-blank.

"It's not good. Duke and Sean found Filomena unconscious at the house," he said.

"What about Anna? What about Robin?"

"Robin's apparently been traumatized. Duke's going with her to General Hospital. Sean's at the house, they're trying to figure out what might have happened to Anna."

"Oh my God," Tiff said.

Doug jumps to his feet when he sees Tiffany go white and rushes to her side.

"I want to go to Duke and Anna's," she said determinedly.

"OK, let's go," he said without thinking twice.

They rush out of the club.

Over at the Laverys, Sean is looking for signs of Anna and coming up empty. Tiffany and Doug arrive, Sam tries to stop them at the door but Tiff is very insistent and the officer lets her in.

"Sean! What is going on?" she asked.

"I said no media," Captain Lewis said.

"I'm not here as a reporter, I'm here as Anna's friend," she responded.

"OK, Sean thinks that Anna's been kidnapped by this guy calling himself 'The Snowman' and I'm starting to agree," Captain Lewis said.

"We need to find Robert," Sean said.

"I know where he is," Tiff responded.

"Where?"

"Well I don't know where specifically, just generally," she said.

"What do you mean?" Sean said, increasingly confused.

"When I was at the brownstone earlier, I was talking to Felicia. She said she was going out of town on a case with Robert."

"But she didn't say where," Sean said.

"No, just that she was going there tonight and it was an undercover assignment," Tiffany said.

"I'm going to go over to the PI office and see if I can find a clue as to where they are," Sean told Captain Lewis.

"I want to go with you. I want to help," Tiffany said.

"I don't have time to argue with you," Sean said.

"Good, then let's go," she said and turned to Doug. "If you want to go home, I can catch up with you later. I need to do this."

"It's all right, I'll go too," Doug said.

"Thanks," she said.

"You don't even need to say that," he said and they followed Sean out.

At the PI office, Sean, Tiffany and Doug are looking through a mass of papers and coming up empty.

"There's got to be something," Tiffany said.

"Maybe not. Standard WSB procedure is to never write anything down," Sean said.

"How does that apply to being a detective?" Doug asked.

"Just a habit he got into, probably," Sean said curtly. "There's not going to be anything here. We'll just have to wait for him to call."

Tiffany's looking behind a file cabinet. "What's this?" she asked, pulling a pink message sheet up off the floor.

"Probably nothing," Sean said.

"It's some kind of list," Tiffany said, bringing it to him anyway.

Sean takes it out of her hand and looks at it. Then his eyes brighten.

"It's a list of car rental agencies," he said. "Robert and Felicia didn't take their own cars, maybe we can find them this way. You're a genius, Tiffany."

"Why don't we split up the list?" she asked. "You can take half and Doug and I can do the other half."

"No, I'll check these out," he said.

"Come on, don't go all loner on me now," she said. "You can use our help."

"If you want to help, stay here and be our command central," he said. "I'll phone in for messages and if Robert or Felicia call, then someone will be around to tell them what's going on."

"I guess there's not a lot of time to argue," Tiffany said.

"No, but I do appreciate it," he said, grabbing his coat. "I'll call you as soon as I can."

"OK," she said. "And Sean..." He stops and looks back at her. "Be careful."

He looks deeply into her eyes. "I will." He runs out of the office.

Tiffany starts straightening piles on the desk. Doug moves over to her. "You all right?" she said.

"I just don't know what to do. Sitting here waiting for the phone to ring is not exactly how I like to play things," she said.

"I understand," he said. "They'll find her, don't worry."

"If anyone can find her, Sean and Robert will," she said. She takes a deep breath and looks back at Doug. "You don't have to stay here, if you want to go home and get some rest, I'll be fine. I just became a glorified receptionist."

"I don't want to go," he said.

"I'll lock the door, I'll be perfectly safe," she said.

"It's not about that. I've gotten kind of use to sleeping with you by my side," Doug said.

She stopped tidying up long enough to look at him. She smiled. "You're the sweetest man," she said.

He steps over to her and takes her in his arms. "I know you're scared," he said. "And I kind of like it being my lot in life to be there for you."

Tiffany's heart is warmed by his sentiment. "I love you," she said and she pulled him into a kiss.


	15. Chapter 15

The weeks passed with everyone in Port Charles on pins and needles about Anna. Tiffany found great comfort in having Doug around, and she even mended fences with her sister, Cheryl. She didn't see much of Sean, as he was working hard with Robert to try to locate their missing friend and colleague.

Tiffany was talking at the news desk with her director when Sean came in. She noticed immediately that he looked very tired, he obviously wasn't getting enough sleep with everything that was going on.

"Keep running the spots on every broadcast," she said. "Someone has to have seen something."

Sean smiled in spite of his weariness. He had been saying the same thing over the phones that day, the day before, the week before and so on.

"Hi," she said. "What can I do for you?"

"Seems like you're doing it with all your public service announcements," he said.

"Anything for Anna. We have to bring her safely back to Robin and Duke," she said. "How's Robin doing, by the way?"

"There's actually been a breakthrough, something about a ring," he said, then quickly realized who he said that to. "Off the record, right?"

"Of course," she said, slightly disappointed that she wouldn't have more for her newscast but unwilling to share information that might make things worse for Anna. "Why don't we go to my office to talk?"

"That would be great, thanks," he said and they walked in that direction.

When they got to the office, Sean slumped into the chair.

"This ring? Is it a solid lead or just grasping at straws?"

"Robert thinks it's a real good lead - the first one we've really had since all of this started," he said.

"What do you think?" she asked, trying to discern if he shared their friend's opinion.

"I think so too," he said. "We don't know what it means or how it will get us closer to figuring out where Anna is, we just know it's something."

"How are you going to follow up on it, go to every single jeweler in the area?" she asked.

"That's a big part of it. Even if they don't know the specific ring, they could get a feel for the era or something that mean something more," he replied. "It's a lot better than sitting around and just waiting for that psycho who has her to contact us."

"And you think she's OK?" she questioned.

"I have to believe that she is. Any other way is just unfathomable."

She pours him a cup of coffee, remembering exactly the amount of cream Sean takes, and hands it to him. "You seem so different," she said.

"Beyond just being bone tired? In what way?" he asked.

"I don't know, grounded maybe," she said, leaning against her desk in front of his chair.

"An improvement?" he asked.

"There was nothing wrong with the old Sean," she said.

"You didn't seem to think so," he said.

"I guess I've kind of come to the understanding that if there's a problem in a relationship, it could be the person seeing it instead of the person being accused of causing it," she said. "Understand?"

His head was kind of swimming, but Sean saw her point. "I don't think you were the problem," he said unguardedly. "You were wonderful."

They kind of looked at each other, both wondering why if neither one thought the other was at fault that they couldn't have made it work. And that's when Doug came in.

"Knock, knock," he said, letting himself in before waiting for an answer. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the two of them apparently deep in conversation. "Am I interrupting?"

"Of course not, sweetheart," Tiffany said, crossing over to Doug and greeting him with a kiss.

"I've got to get back to the office anyway," Sean said. "One more thing, Tiffany, Robert was wondering if we could change pictures in the bulletin you run on air, maybe show different images of her in different hair and clothing styles. Sometimes it helps if people don't focus on one particular picture."

"Of course," she said. "Bring whatever you want by any time, and I'll make sure it gets done."

"Robert would really appreciate it," he said, moving to the door and then turning back to them. "And so would I."

"Not a problem," she said.

"Goodbye," he said and left.

"Bye," she said as the door closed, then wheeled back around to face Doug.

"He looks tired," Doug said.

"I noticed that too," Tiffany replied.

"He's probably not getting enough sleep," he said.

"I imagine that's the case, but he's used to it," she said.

"Because of his work with the World Security Bureau? I imagine that's true. But sometimes even the best of agents can be adversely affected when something hits closer to home," Doug explained.

"And it couldn't get much closer for Sean, between Anna's disappearance and Robin's troubles," Tiff continued.

"Exactly," Doug said.

"There's probably a lot of that going around right now, between him, Robert and Duke," she said. "A lot of tension too."

"It's not going to do them any favors," Doug said.

"If anyone can handle that, it's those guys," Tiffany said strongly. Her confidence in them was a little unsettling to Doug. "So what did you bring me?

"Chicken pot pie from Kelly's," he said.

"Perfect, something to just warm the cockles of my heart," she said.

"I don't like much more than warming your cockles, honey," he said.

She leaned over for a kiss, then drew back and looked at him. Sean crossed her mind for the briefest of moments, and then she was digging into the bag from Kelly's.


	16. Chapter 16

Tiffany wakes up in Doug's arms the next day. She hadn't been back to the brownstone for a couple weeks, except to pick up clothing or other items she needed for a particular day. She was getting pretty used to having him around and also to having him there for her as well. She looks at the alarm clock, sighs and slips out of his grasp.

She jumps in the shower to get ready for the day. And Anna sprang immediately to mind, as she had every day since she disappeared. She would never admit it to anyone else, but she was getting pretty frustrated by the lack of response to the nightly news bulletins offering a reward for any information on her whereabouts. She thinks about Robin, Duke, Robert and what they were all going through. And then she thinks of Sean. For a second.

Invariably when she thought of Sean, the next thought was that she shouldn't be letting Sean enter her mind when she was so happy - because she was happy - with Doug. And that's when she would list all the great things about Doug in her mind: He was dependable, courteous, generous, handsome. Your basic opposite of Sean Donely, she thought. Well, except for the handsome part anyway.

By the time she got out of the shower, she was running over her Doug list again. In fact, she was so wrapped up in doing that that she didn't see the actual man get out of bed in her peripheral vision. He moves over to her and she practically jumps through the ceiling when he goes to wrap his arms around her.

"Sorry," she said apologetically. "I didn't see you."

"I can see that. I apologize," Doug says.

"It was my fault, my head was someplace else," Tiffany said.

"Have I told you lately how glad I am that the rest of you is here with me?" Doug asked.

"You really mean that, don't you?" she responded.

"I do," he said genuinely.

"That's become very important to me," she said. "I think all of this just kind of reinforces what I already had in my head. I don't want to waste a minute with you, not a second. I didn't even want to waste that time just now being startled. It's all so precious, every single moment you have with someone you care about. And all this stuff we do all day long, like me just about to go off to the TV station, it's only marking time until I get to be with you again."

"I've never been happier," Doug said.

"Me either," she said. "Truly."

She kisses him deeply, but eventually pulls away. "I gotta go. I can't wait to see you again already." She leaves the room and Doug mulls over what she's just said.

A few hours later, Tiffany is in her office. Sean has brought in an array of Anna photos with her hair up, down, teased, straight. In formal wear, in casual clothes, with Robin, with Duke.

"Like I was saying yesterday, sometimes people get too tied into one particular picture on the television and then can't see outside the proverbial box," Sean said. "If we show her in a variety of ways, they're sometimes able to make the connection easier."

"That's really interesting," Tiffany said. "Have they done focus groups on that?"

"I think there has been a university study or two commissioned by the WSB," he said. "Some retired agent trying to keep a hand in after they've moved on to bigger and better things, I suppose."

Anna crosses his mind. "Anna was - is - very interested in the psychology of people, what makes them think the way they do," he said. "How they act and why they react they would do to any given situation. Sure wish we had her here to help with this case."

"Sean, I know you know this, but that woman is really smart," Tiffany said gently. "And she's also a survivor and I believe you and Robert are going to find her before..." Her voice trails off as she tries to keep from saying the unthinkable.

"I can't lose her," Sean admitted.

"You're not going to," she said strongly, moving over to him and reflexively going into his arms.

Sean holds on to her as tightly as he can, comforted by the fact that she's there. He hated feeling overly emotional, though, and it seemed to be multiplying exponentially at that moment due to the fact that the woman he's holding is no longer his to hold onto.

He starts to pull back, but she doesn't let him. "Listen, don't play superspy with me, Sean," she said. "I know how close you are to Anna, she's family to you. And you're finding it difficult to separate your need to focus on the clues from your personal attachment to her. But that's not a bad thing. It doesn't show that you're weak, it just shows you care."

Sean admires how well she knows him, and again, he becomes aware that their physical proximity isn't right given their current status. This time, he moves away from her, even though every molecule of his body tells him not to.

At that precise moment, there's a knock on the door. Tiffany, still a bit affected by the moment, manages to utter "Yes?"

"Ms. Hill, did you say you wanted a new cut for the bulletin on Anna Lavery?"

"Yes, I want to go with it tonight. We won't be using just one photo, we'll run three or four in sequence while the contact information is displayed on the screen. I'll have them to you in five minutes."

"OK, I'll get Vince to bring up the existing spot and we can cut in and around it," the voice said and went away.

"That's really a good idea, Tiffany," Sean said admiringly.

"It's all based on what you said," she responded. "If we need people to not focus in one picture, it would be a good idea to show more than one, right?"

"Absolutely," he said, smiling at her. The air's getting a little charged again between them. Sean shifts awkwardly and knocks all the photos off the desk. They both bend over to start picking them up, just as Doug bursts into Tiffany's office.

"Will you marry me?" he said abruptly. Tiffany is stunned into silence.

"This is so sudden," Sean said, getting up from the ground.

Doug rolls his eyes at seeing Sean yet again in his intended's office.

"If you will excuse me," Sean said, backing at the office but dismayed at seeing an affected Tiff halted in her tracks. He closes the door and listens on the outside.

"That man is always around," he said.

"Believe me, he's around a lot more since we broke up," Tiffany retorted.

"I hope that won't be the case when we're married. If you'll say yes, that is," Doug said.

"What brought this up?" Tiffany said, more than a little confused about the previous moment with Sean and then the surprise proposal.

"You said something about not wasting a second. And I don't want to do that. I want to ensure that I'm treasuring every moment," he said. "You give me direction, you give me reason to go on. I swear I think I've made more progress at work in the past couple of months than in the year before that. I'm driven now."

"Sounds like it," she said, appreciating that fact. "You're not worried about Sean being in our lives anymore?"

"No. All I'll ever worry about is you not being in mine."

"Because we know all the same people," she continued, still on the Sean track. "Some of my best friends are his best friends."

"That's all right. I don't care. I don't care what he was doing when I came in. I don't care if he was looking at those long, beautiful legs. What I care about is those legs coming home to me."

Tiffany cracks a smile.

"Is that a yes?" Doug asked.

"It's a yes," she said. "It's definitely a yes."

Doug's grinning from ear to ear. Sean's the opposite as he shuffles away unhappily. "Well then, I guess my trip to the jewelry store was not for naught," Doug continued in the office.

He pulls out a box and opens it to reveal a very tasteful diamond in a white gold band. Tiffany's jaw drops.

"I take it you like," he said.

"I like it, and I loooove you," she said as he put the ring on her finger and they meet for a kiss.


	17. Chapter 17

Tiffany sat at the desk in her office and pondered her engagement ring. It sparkled in the early morning light coming through her window. Her phone buzzed.

"Tiffany Hill," she said. "The future Tiffany Baxter," she added more quietly, really listening to those words.

"What was that, Ms. Hill?" her assistant asked.

"Nothing. What is it, Mary?"

"Your sister is here to see you."

"Oh, great, send her in, thank you," she said.

Tiffany smiled broadly, excited about showing off her rock to her sister. She leaned back in her chair. Cheryl knocked once and entered.

"I guess things have changed around here," Cheryl said. "I didn't even have to wait."

"Like I told you the other day, life's just too short," Tiffany said. "You're my sister and I love you. Even if I don't always understand you."

"I guess I'll have to admit I love you too, even though I usually don't understand you," Cheryl quipped. "Like why you would even consider throwing in the towel on Sean Donely."

"Sometimes something just comes along that suits you better," Tiff said.

"Better than that man?" Cheryl asked, not buying it for a minute.

"Well yes. Better for me. In the long run. For the future. Those kind of things," the older sister explained. "They become important."

"Sinking your hooks into a handsome doctor would fall into that line of thinking, I assume," Cheryl said, throwing her coat onto one chair and sitting in another opposite Tiff's desk.

"I'm not sure he thinks of it that way," Tiffany said.

"I'm sure he doesn't," Cheryl replied.

"Otherwise, he probably wouldn't have given me this," she said, flashing her ring.

Cheryl's eyes bugged out. "Ohmigod! Did he...? Did you...?"

"He did ... and I am," Tiffany said.

Cheryl jumped up and practically pogoed over into her sister's arms. "That's incredible! Congratulations!" They hugged vigorously for a few moments before Cheryl pulled back. "Wait, should we be acting like best friends here? I mean we've only had our truce for a few weeks, and before we did that, things were bad between us for years. We didn't even have contact for a decade."

"I think we should," Tiff said. "In fact, I was kind of hoping you'd agree to be my maid of honor."

Cheryl's taken aback. "Really?"

"Cheryl Ann, you're the only sister I've got. You know it really seems right, in a way, like I didn't find the man I was going to marry until I got my sister back to help me do it right," Tiffany said genuinely.

Tears are welling in both their eyes. "Then how I can do anything but accept?"

"You can't."

They hug again and then Cheryl surveys the ring once more.

Robert comes downstairs at Sean's penthouse to a cacophonous racket of banging drawers, phones and pretty much anything in Sean's immediate vicinity.

"Methinks there's something wrong with my old buddy Sean Donely," Robert said.

"What was your first clue?" Sean said, clearly not in the mood.

"This is not the best way to start off the day. Everything always gets worse if you begin it being angry at the world," Robert said.

"You tell me why I shouldn't be," Sean said. "Anna's gone. We have no idea how to find her, we're just waiting for the madman who has her to start yanking our chain again. We're walking on pins and needles around Robin. And..." He stops short there, knowing the next words aren't half as important to Robert as the ones that preceded them.

"And...?" Robert asked.

"Nevermind," Sean said.

"I'm getting the sense that the 'and' has more to do with the cage rattling going on down here than anything else," Robert said.

"Master detective at work," Sean said, mock-admiringly.

"So spill it, because you know we've got other things we have to turn our attention to in about three minutes," Robert said.

Sean rolled his neck. "Tiffany's marrying the doctor."

"Uh oh," Robert said. "How do you know?"

"I was kinda in the office when Baxter popped the question," Sean said.

"You were what?" Robert asked. "Forget it. I'm sure it's a completely hilarious story that has nothing whatsoever to do with the issue at hand. ... You're sure she accepted."

Sean nodded.

"Because..." Robert followed up, leadingly.

"Because I used my advanced spy training to listen at the door," Sean said.

Robert rolled his eyes. "I'll use a little bit of my own investigative ability, plus some common sense and wager to guess that you're not too happy about it."

"I'm happy for her," he said.

"You really don't have to give me the glorified press release, Sean."

"I'm afraid that's all our people have prepared at this time," he said, trying to work his way out of it with levity.

"I see. Well before we move on to other pressing subjects, let me just put my two cents worth in," Robert said. "The first cent, she's not married yet. And the second, I think the both of us are pretty aware of how rare and precious a creature that one is. Flighty, sometimes ... over-the-top, usually ... but she's always everything a woman should be and then some."

"I'll take it under advisement," Sean said as the phone rings. Robert moves over to answer it.

"Scorpio," he says, then a look of amusement crosses his face. "Tiff ... we were just ..." Sean shakes his head vigorously. "Just about to call you." Sean breathes a sigh of relief and the look on Robert's face changes drastically. "We'll be right there."

"What is it?" Sean asked.

"A letter from the Snowman, delivered to WLPC," Robert said.

"What? I don't believe it," Sean responded.

"This guy is an egomaniac. He's so sure he's not going to be caught that he's willing to take even more risks," Robert said. "Let's go."

Robert and Sean rush out the door.


	18. Chapter 18

Tiffany's trying to calm down a shaken Mary at her assistant's desk.

"It's OK, no one's going to do anything to you, Mary," she said. "Here, drink some water." She gives the older woman a glass of water. "Take some deep breaths."

"It's just so menacing," Mary said. "I mean, I know we've gotten threats here before, but this guy just sounds so brutal."

Tiffany needs some calming down herself after thinking that one over and what it could mean for her friend, Anna. Robert and Sean enter the room swiftly.

"Where is it?" Robert asked without going into formalities.

"Right here," Tiffany said, pointing down at the desk. "I'm sorry, I touched it before I knew what it was."

"That's OK," Sean said reassuringly. "This Snowman's certainly savvy enough not to leave any prints. I think we should dust it anyway, though."

"This is only going to end one way for Scorpio, unhappily," Robert read aloud. Mary starts to shake again. Tiffany kneels beside her to try to comfort her. "You best have your cameras on constant stand-by because this is one death scene that no one's going to want to miss."

"He knew that you'd show this to us," Robert said. That sends another chill down Tiffany's spine. She tries to brush it off, but Sean notices. "OK what I want to do is fax this to the station." He takes out a pair of gloves and puts them on. "Fax machine?"

"Right over there," Tiffany points it out.

"Great," Robert said. "Sean, get their prints."

"And me without my fingerprinting kit," he said. "We'll have to improvise. ... OK, I got it. Do you use rubber stamps here?" he asked Tiffany.

"Yes," she said. "For invoices and things like that."

"Where's the ink pad?" he asked.

"Mary?" Tiffany followed up.

"Top left drawer," Mary said.

"Let me grab a couple of pieces of paper," he said, spotting some on top of the desk. "Who wants to go first?"

Tiffany and Mary looked at each other. Mary shook her head. "OK, I'll go," Tiff said.

Sean glances down at her jewelry and one piece of it in particular. "You'd better take those off," he said.

Tiffany hesitates for just a second, then does as he asks. He takes her hand in his, and they both try to ignore that sensation. He gently moves to each finger, placing it on the pad and then carefully rolling it across the paper. It goes very smoothly, she intuitively seems to know how to help him do that. She's very aware that's the case.

"Do they train you for this at the WSB?" she asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Nope. Saw it in a James Bond movie," Sean quipped. Even Mary cracks a smile at that.

He switches to the other hand and a brief thought of never letting it go crosses his mind. But then it's back to business and he gets a clean print of each digit.

"OK, I'm done," he said. "You can wash up."

"See, no problem, Mary," she said. "He has a very soft touch when it's called for." She regrets saying that the minute it comes out of her mouth.

Tiffany grabs some tissues off the desk and starts cleaning her fingers off as Sean fingerprints Mary. "Hand wipes?" she asked her assistant.

"In the middle drawer," Mary said.

Tiffany moves around the desk and sits in the chair so she can pull out the drawer. She finds a packet and rips it open in order to clean off the last remnants of the ink. She looks down at the desk at her rings and she can feel Sean watching her out of the corner of her eye. She picks up the engagement ring first and puts it back on the ring finger of her left hand. Sean returns his focus to the task at hand.

"OK, we're good here," Robert said. "Now tell me about how the letter arrived?"

"It was just in the morning mail," Mary said. "With a stack of bills and the fan mail."

"Where's the envelope?" Robert asked.

"Ummm, I don't know, it's got to be here somewhere," she said, nodding her head in the direction of the area of the desk covered in letters. Robert puts his gloves back on and starts wading through the pile.

"Done, Mary, see that wasn't so bad, was it?" Sean asked.

"No, it wasn't," she said as Tiffany hands her some new tissues out of the box.

"Got it!" Robert said. "Let's get this stuff back to the station. Thank you for your time, ladies, and all that rigamarole."

Sean picks up the two sets of prints and starts to follow Robert out. "We really do appreciate it."

Tiffany nods.

"If anything else happens, let us know right away," Sean said.

"Of course," Tiffany replied.

Sean exits and Tiff gives Mary a new hand wipe.

"Forgive me for saying so, but that was deeply weird, Ms. Hill," Mary said.

"Well we thankfully don't get letters from madmen that much around here," she responded.

"No, I was talking about Mr. Donely."

"I'm sure he would have rather used his fingerprint kit," she said.

"Wasn't talking about that either," Mary added knowingly. The phone rings and they both glance down at the flashing light. "It's your line."

Saved by the proverbial bell, Tiffany thinks to herself. "Tiffany Hill," she said as brightly as she could muster. "Doug, hi. ... How's my day been? Fine, if you don't mind getting bone-chilling letters from a psychopath and then being finger-printed for your trouble." She leans back in the chair and starts to tell him the whole story.

A few hours later, Tiffany's in her office when Sean knocks on the door.

"Did you mess up the fingerprints?" she teased.

"No, and I'm happy to report, you and Mary have both been cleared," he responded cheerfully.

"Excellent," she said. "More questions then?"

"Nope," he continued. "I thought I'd drop by a little engagement present for you. I ... saw the ring earlier. So you're getting married?"

For some reason, Tiffany feels defensive. "Yes."

"May I ask when?"

"Soon," she said. "Well not tomorrow, but as soon as we can put it all together."

"No need to rush, right?"

"Well, I'm not getting any younger," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Sometimes I would swear you are," he replied.

Tiffany sighs, and inside she's wondering why he didn't say sweet things like that when they were actually together. "You really don't have to give us a present."

"I'm not," he said.

"You said..."

"I said I had a present for you," Sean said, presenting a rectangular box. "Go on, open it."

Curiosity gets the best of Tiffany and she opens it to find a bracelet that matches the necklaces she got from him for Christmas. "This is too much, Sean. Just like the necklace was. I can't accept it."

"I don't see why not," Sean said.

"Because an engagement present is a present for two people."

"I don't know Doug. I don't ... care about Doug. I care about you. I want you to have it. It's supposed to go with the necklace, it's kind of a set."

"I just don't think it's right," she said.

"Do you want something else, then?"

"No, I'm not fishing for gifts here. I don't need anything."

"How about I send you on vacation somewhere? The both of you. Like an early honeymoon."

"No, Sean. He's a doctor, we can afford our own early honeymoon."

"Just tell me what you want," he said, not wanting to feel as out of control with her as he does in regards to everything else in his life.

"Nothing," she said, hanging her head and sighing. "I feel like I can't say anything right right now."

"Just take this," he said. "I really want you to have it. It doesn't have to be an engagement present, then."

"And how do I explain that to Doug?" she asked.

"How do you explain what to Doug?" asked the person they were discussing, who was looking more than a little concerned as he entered the room.


	19. Chapter 19

Doug enters Tiffany's office and closes the door behind him.

"So what requires an explanation?" he asked, looking from Tiffany to Sean and back again.

"Sean just wanted to give me something as an engagement present and I thought it was too much to accept," Tiffany replied.

Doug folds his arms. "What was it?"

"A bracelet," she said. "It didn't seem appropriate."

"It was more than just because you got engaged," Sean said.

"Oh?" Doug questioned.

"It's a thank-you for all her help around Anna's investigation," he said.

"Can I see it?" Doug asked.

Sean presents it like a jeweler showing his wares.

"It matches the necklace," Doug said.

Sean looks taken aback that he knows about that.

"She tells me everything," Doug said confidently.

"You're a lucky man," Sean responded with all sincerity

"I know that. And you're not," Doug added.

"Doug!" Tiffany said, clearly unhappy with that retort.

"When you're right you're right," Sean said. "And he's right." He looks down at this feet and purses his lips. "I'm sorry I offended you with this."

"I wasn't offended," Tiffany said gently. "I just thought it was too extravagant."

"I don't think anything's too extravagant for you," Doug said to her.

"That was kind of my point," Sean added.

"I think you should take it," Doug said.

"Anyone care what I think?" she asked, slightly rattled at the fact that the two men seem to be settling the issue between themselves.

"Of course, I do," Doug said. "But I know you like the necklace, which means you probably do like this bracelet. It was a nice gift and maybe a little too much in general. But not when it comes to you."

Behind him, Sean nods in silent agreement.

"Fine, thank you, it's lovely," she said dismissively. "Now I've got a lot of work to do, so if you both wouldn't mind..."

"Sorry to have kept you," Sean said. "I'll talk to you ... later."

She nods slightly and Sean leaves. Doug moves over to her and slips a hand onto her waist.

"Not now, OK?" she said, still irritated.

"How about dinner?" Doug asked.

"I'm staying for the 11 p.m. news," Tiff said.

"We could have a midnight supper," he said.

"No, thanks," she replied.

"Are you coming over after the broadcast?"

"Not tonight," she said.

"You want to tell me what's wrong?" Doug asked.

"Not really," Tiffany responded.

"Is this 'No, because I'm mad' or 'No, because I'm busy'?" Doug inquired.

"It's both," she said.

"Are you upset because I told you to take the damn bracelet or are you upset because I interrupted your little moment with Sean?" Doug wondered.

Tiffany wheels around, her face is reddening with anger. "To tell you the truth, I'm getting more than a little tired of this. I'm engaged to you. I agreed to marry you. That's not something I take lightly."

"He just seems to be around here an awful lot," Doug said. "I couldn't even propose without him being in the vicinity."

"That's not making me particularly happy either. It's one thing to have him come by when I can do something to help Anna, but I don't really appreciate scenes like the one we just had. I know he's upset about Anna, but he should be channeling his energy somewhere else."

"You could tell him that," he said.

"I can't," she said.

"Why not?" he asked.

"He's upset."

"Well, he's making you upset. And if it's a choice between you and him, I'm going to pick you every time."

"That's sweet," she said, softening a little. "It's just ... he doesn't show vulnerability that much. And I don't want to make him think that he can't do that, because he'll go back into that loner shell and maybe not emerge again."

"You still care about him?" Doug asked, a little fearful of her reply.

"Yes, but not in the way you may be thinking," she responded. "He's a good person. Someday he'll make a fabulous grownup."

"Your heart is so big," he said, again trying to put his hands on her waist and meeting with less resistance this time. "It's one of the things I love most about you, you know." He gently tugs her earring off so he can nibble on her earlobe. "Still don't want to come over tonight?"

"You may not understand this, but I just want to go to my apartment tonight," she said. "I'm really tired. Tired of having to explain or justify myself. You do it with words, he does it with actions. It's exhausting."

"All right," he said regretfully. "And I'm sorry."

"You know I really do understand, it just gets to be a little much especially with everything else going on. I'm worried about my friend. I'd really like it to calm down a little around here," she said.

"Uh oh," Doug said.

"What uh oh?" she asked.

"Well, the reason I really came over was to ask you if you wanted to get married in two weeks. I checked on the chapel, reception, flowers, cake, everything. And I'd marry you tomorrow if you said yes, but if I'm going to give you the wedding of your dreams, it has to be two weeks. But now ... well it can wait until we're sure Anna is safe."

Tiffany mulls the thought around in her head. "You really did your research, didn't you?"

"It's your wedding," he said.

"It's yours too," she replied.

"All I want out of my wedding is you and a nice, long honeymoon."

"Uhhhhhh," she said.

"Problem?"

"You almost had me convinced. But I can't go off on a honeymoon in a couple weeks," Tiffany said. "I need at least a month to get everything set here at the station. So, while that was terribly sweet and I'm becoming a very firm believer in making the most of every moment we have on this planet, I couldn't possibly get away so soon."

"I think I could make a couple concessions on this front," Doug responded. "If you'll agree to marry me in a fortnight, I think we could put off the honeymoon for two weeks so that we can go anywhere and do anything we want in the world."

"OK."

"OK?"

"Yes."

"Your answer is yes?" a completely shocked Doug asked.

"Yes, it's yes."

Doug tightened his hands around his waist, picked her up and whirled her around. "I have to go make some calls." He hugged her, kissed her engagement ring and walked purposefully to the door. "Oh, are there any special instructions? Anything you want, because whatever it is, you can have it."

"I have a feeling whatever you have planned is going to be just perfect," she said.

He blew a kiss to her and exited. She looked at the door for an extra moment before sitting back down at the desk. The bracelet box was in front of her. She opened it and brushed her forefinger over some of the emeralds and diamonds. She snapped it closed again and put it in her desk drawer


	20. Chapter 20

A few days later, Tiffany is at the station when Greg brings her news of the statewide APB that had been put out on Duke Lavery.

"Why would Robert do this?" she said, looking at a printout of the information.

"Should we get this on the air right away?" Greg said.

"No, we don't have any more to go on right now. Start working the phones, see what else you can get," she said.

"I'm on it," Greg said and ran off.

Tiffany reads the bulletin over again. "Something tells me I'm not going to have to worry about Sean showing up unannounced today."

She goes into her office and turns on the police scanner, sits down at the desk and starts making notes to piece together what little she has for a possible story.

A half hour later, there's more news, as Tiffany hears on the scanner that Duke's right-hand man had been arrested for obstruction of justice. She grabs the phone and calls the club.

"Duke's," said a harried Terry.

"Terry, it's Tiffany," she said. "What's going on over there?"

"You wouldn't believe it, Tiff," Terry blurted. "Robert came in here wanting to know where Duke was. Of course Angel wouldn't help him, so he carted him on out of there. Handcuffs and everything."

"Please tell me Robert doesn't think Duke's somehow mixed up in Anna's kidnapping," Tiffany said.

"I don't know. I don't think it's that. But I think he thinks Duke has some information."

"You don't have any idea where he is, do you?"

"Who, Duke or Robert?" Terry asked.

"Either!" Tiffany replied.

"No, I don't. Look Tiff, I gotta go. I'm the only one here to run the club for I don't know how long."

"I understand, don't worry, I don't think Robert will hold him for long," Tiffany said. "Call me if you hear anything about anything."

"I will, bye," Terry said and hung up.

Tiffany leans back in her chair and played with her upper lip, wondering where all of this was going. She resists the impulse to try and call Sean.

She had just finished the early news with a pretty thin report on Angel's arrest and the APB out on Duke when news of Duke's location crossed the police scanner. It was nothing specific, just a report that he had been spotted and that the investigators should contact the lead officer.

"I don't understand any of this," she said to herself. She grabs a nail file from her purse and vigorously starts working on her nails.

"Ms. Hill," Greg said, bursting into her office. "They've pinpointed Lavery's location."

"Yeah, I heard," Tiffany said.

"Do we break into programming?" he asked.

"I don't think so, we still don't have any more on what they want him for. He might just be a witness. I don't want to crucify the man if there's no reason to."

"Then why would they have arrested Angel?" Greg continued.

"We don't have proof that he's committed any crime," she said firmly. "I say we wait."

"All right, but I'm not sure that's the right move," he said.

"I'm not either, but I don't feel comfortable railroading the man either," she added.

"It's your station," he said, exiting.

"It's not my station I'm worried about," she said.

There wasn't any further news that night, but by the time she was back there the next morning, the scanner had picked up that the lead investigative team - which Tiff correctly assumed was Robert and Sean - was in the mountains on the trail of Grant Putnam, She picks up the phone and dials Greg. "Pull all the footage on we have on Grant Putnam from a few years back. We're going to be needing it very soon, I think."

She puts down the receiver and starts making notes. "Hang in there, Anna."

An hour or so later, she was looking over video with Greg and telling him which segments she wanted to use when the police scanner reported an officer down and another snowmobile taken out in the general vicinity where the search was going on.

"Oh God," Tiffany said, wracked with concern.

"From what we're getting off of these tapes, I wouldn't want to mess with that madman," Greg said.

"He doesn't know who he's messing with if he's taking on Robert, Sean and Anna," she said. She thought back to the Mount Rushmore caper and how they not only survived by triumphed in that one.

And she's right, because a half hour later comes the report that Anna's been rescued and Putnam captured. Anna's condition is critical and she's being taken to General Hospital.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU," Tiffany said, looking upwards "One more favor, watch over, Anna." Then after a beat. "Let's move, people, we're going to go live with this, then I'm going to go down to General Hospital."

Tiffany does her report and rushes to the hospital, which is a buzz of activity preparing for the helicopter's arrival. She gets permission from Steve Hardy to have a cameraman situated on the roof and goes up there with him. As they set up, Doug comes out on the roof too.

"I just heard," he said, pulling her into a hug.

"Anything more on Anna's condition?" Tiff asked.

"She's suffering from exposure, she's critical," he said. "It could go either way."

"They had to have found her in time," she replied.

"I hope so, sweetheart. I really hope so," Doug said.

"There's the chopper," the cameraman said.

"Stay on Anna and follow her as long as you can," Tiffany said.

"I will," he replied and jockeyed the camera into position.

The helicopter is lowered to the ground, and the hospital personnel race over to help get Anna's gurney out of it. The cameraman somehow catches it all, despite the bustle of activity. Robert and Sean also get out of the helicopter. Tiffany sighs with relief at seeing them alive and seemingly well. She extends an arm to an intense Robert as he passes by, he nods his head at her. And then she makes eye contact with Sean and tears immediately well up in her eyes.

"I'm glad you're OK," she managed to say.

What passes through Sean's mind is the idea of pulling her into a hug and never letting go, but he sees Doug in his peripheral vision. So he utters "thanks" and follows everyone into the hospital.

Tiffany takes a couple of deep breaths and turns back to Doug. "She has to be all right," she said.

After doing a brief live report, Tiffany sits down in the lounge waiting area to wait to speak to Robert or Sean.

"I've got to get back," Doug said regretfully.

"I know. It's just going to be a lot of waiting now anyway," Tiffany said. "You go ahead."

"You know where I am if you need me," he said, kissing her and crossing over to the elevator.

A visibly shaken Sean walks down the hallway aimlessly. He sees Tiffany in the lounge, takes two steps toward her, rethinks that and stops and then rethinks the rethinking and continues over to her.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi," she said, jumping up. "Any news? Off the record, of course."

"They're watching over her now, trying to lower her body temperature. There's a chance she could go into cardiac arrest," he said mournfully.

"Oh no," she said. "Come sit down." She leads him to the seat. "I know she's going to be all right."

"I pray that's true," he said.

"Me too," she replied.

"I take it you're waiting to talk to Robert," he said.

She nodded, almost feeling guilty about it. "There's no rush, just whenever he can."

"Will I do? ... I just don't think he's going to be up to it for a quite a while."

"If you want, that would be great," she said. "If you want to get some coffee or something first, that's fine."

"Let's get it over with," he said.

She nods and signals to her cameraman, who gets into position and starts rolling tape.

"This is Tiffany Hill live at WLPC at General Hospital, where we're awaiting word on former police commissioner Anna Lavery. This afternoon, Mrs. Lavery was dramatically rescued from the clutches of the notorious Grant Putnam by current commissioner Robert Scorpio, detective Sean Donely and a host of other law officers. We have Mr. Donely here with us now, can you tell us what is what like out there?"

"Cold," Sean said. "Putnam's hideaway was buried in the mountains, where it was very cold."

"How did all of this come to a head?" Tiffany asked.

"We got a lead on where he was staked out and actually had to take snowmobiles to get to the place. Putnam was waiting for us, he shot one of our officers - who I hear is in stable condition - and took shots at Robert Scorpio and myself."

"We heard that your snowmobile flipped over. Are you sure you're all right?" she asked, and it was more for herself than the viewing audience.

"Yes, I'm fine. I'm happy to say he missed the target. That led to a foot chase after which Robert captured him."

"And what's when you found Mrs. Lavery?" Tiffany followed. "Yes, she was tied up in the cabin, but apparently had tried to escape last night and almost froze to death. Her condition is very critical."

"And Putnam?"

"Putnam is in custody and I doubt this time they'll make the same mistake of putting him in a mental institution."

"Thank you, Mr. Donely," Tiffany said. "It's certainly a relief to know a very dangerous man won't be able to hurt anyone else and we'll all be praying for Mrs. Lavery to get well soon. From General Hospital, this is Tiffany Hill."

Tiffany holds for a beat and the cameraman stops tape.

"Thanks very much for this, Sean," she said, turning to him.

"I hope I didn't sound too ridiculous, flipping over my snowmobile and all."

"I don't think you'll get that held against you since a psychopath was shooting at you at the time," Tiffany said. "We've got to get this back to the station. Thanks again."

Sean looks into her eyes, and again, all he wants to do is hold on to her forever. He just nods instead. They exchange quick goodbyes and she leaves, he watches her until the elevator doors close and then heads back to the intensive care unit.


	21. Chapter 21

Days later, Anna has survived a couple of major medical scares and is on the road to recovery. All the work she's been doing on the story has left Tiffany precious little time to worry about her upcoming wedding, but Doug has been handling all the arrangements. Tiffany stops over at Doug's after the final fitting for her rather dramatic wedding gown.

"I wish you'd stay here with me tonight," Doug said.

"I think we've already flown in the face of one too many traditions," she said. "You've not only seen the wedding gown, but you picked it out yourself. As you know well, we didn't exactly wait for our wedding night either. I'm just going to do this one little thing for a little tradition. And this time tomorrow, we'll be husband and wife."

"I can't wait for that," he said.

"Me either," she said. "Besides don't you have to make sure I get back to the brownstone in time for my bridal shower?"

"How did you know?" Doug asked.

"Oh please, it's being planned right under my nose, you think I can't sniff that one out?" she teased.

"You have had an awful lot on your plate this week, I thought it might pass undetected," he said.

"Nope."

"Well you'll have to at least act surprised," he said. "They've really been excited about pulling this off."

"That I can do," she smiled. "Years of practice."

"All right, I might as well get you over there if I can't convince you to do otherwise," Doug said. "May I carry your dress?"

"Just continuing to fly right in the face of convention," she laughed, handing over the box and they leave his brownstone and head toward hers.

Inside the brownstone, Bobbie, Felicia, Terry, Simone and a host of other women await Tiffany's arrival. Felicia's keeping watch at the front door.

"It's nice to have something to look forward to for a change," Terry said.

"I hope she's surprised," Simone said.

"She hasn't mentioned anything to me about it," Bobbie replied.

"Here they come!" Felicia said. The ladies all scurry into hiding places. Tiffany and Doug enter. She stands on the landing in the living room for a second, looks left and right and then at Doug questioningly.

"Surprise!" comes the late chorus in unison.

"Ohmigoodness, I don't believe it," Tiffany shouted in full dramatic Southern accent. Doug smiled in appreciation. "Is this for me?"

"Of course it's for you!" Terry said. "You didn't think we'd forget about having a little party to send you off in style, did you?"

"It hadn't even crossed my mind," Tiff said.

"Well, we definitely wouldn't," Felicia said. "The bridal shower is one of the highlights of the whole event, well, up until the good part."

"That's right," Simone said. "And we couldn't send you off into your new life without a few choice goodies."

"Which means, Mr. Groom, that you're going to have to leave now," Bobbie admonished. "And since this party is going to be going for quite a few hours, we don't want to see your handsome face until tomorrow at the church. Bad luck, you know."

"I don't believe in that," Doug said.

"Well, we're women and we do," Terry said. "You won't be seeing her again until you're at the altar."

"I think it's a silly tradition that should be totally changed. The bride and groom should spend every last minute together before they're wed," he said.

"Not the way it works, I'm afraid," Simone said. "I think it's because no one would ever show up on time that way."

"You may be right," Bobbie said. "But fear not, because I happen to know that a few friends of yours would like you to grace them with your presence at a little hotspot called the Bucket of Blood."

"A fine upstanding establishment if ever there was one," Felicia said.

"I guess I have no choice but to go then," Doug said. He wraps his arms around Tiffany. "Sure you don't want to just elope?"

"I'm starting to think about it," Tiffany said.

"No, no, no, no, no," Terry said. "I happen to know a great deal about this woman's dream wedding. And it doesn't have anything to do with her, her fiance and an Elvis minister in Vegas. So skedaddle."

"Skedaddling," Doug said, still holding her. "I love you and I can't wait until you're mine."

"I'm already yours," she said, meeting him halfway for a deep kiss.

The ladies sigh and pretend to check their watches against how long the kiss lasts. "Time!" Bobbie said. "To be continued tomorrow. We've got our own schedule to keep here."

"Night," Tiffany said dreamily.

"Night," Greg said regretfully and slowly walked away, looking back and almost begging for her to say one word to stop him.

"OK, now we can get down!" Terry yelled after he leaves and the women at the party cheer and holler. A bottle of champagne is produced, and Felicia gleefully pops the corner.

"To the future Mrs. Baxter!" she said. Everyone echoes the sentiment and drinks heartily, including Tiffany.

The party's in full swing an hour or so later, the women all seem a little tipsy.

"We interrupt this party for a special news bulletin," Bobbie said.

"Oh no, not work, please," Tiffany moaned.

"That's right, we've engaged - get it, engaged? - a special cameraman to break this story," Terry said.

She opens the door and a good-looking young man Tiffany's never seen before in her life enters with a WLPC camera on his shoulder. She looks confused. Until Simone hits the tape recorder and the music starts playing. The man sidles out of his WLPC jacket, throwing off the lanyard holding his news crew pass and continues to take his clothes off, to everyone's enjoyment.

"I don't believe this," Tiffany said, laughing and going with the flow.

"Oh wait, we should be recording this for posterity," Bobbie said, picking up her own video camera and zooming in when the man grabs Tiffany and starts dancing very closely with her. "This is definitely 'Entertainment Tonight'."

"Make it 'Entertainment This Week'," Simone chimed in.

"How about 'Entertainment This Year'?" Terry asked.

"There's no show 'Entertainment This Year'," Felicia said.

"There is now!" Terry exclaimed.

The women continue to whoop it up, while at the Bucket of Blood, Doug and his friends from the hospital are getting progressively drunker. But in a much more quiet way. They're all taking shots. One of everything. A distracted Sean walks in the door and sits on a stool away from the group. He shifts uncomfortably and adjusts his pocket so it's not binding him. The bartender serves up a shot of whiskey.

"What is this?" Sean asked.

"On the house... courtesy of the rich doctors," the bartender said, signaling to the party.

Sean looks over at the bachelor party. Now he needs the drink. He takes the glass and downs it in one gulp. He turns the glass over and puts it on the bar. "Hit me again," he tells the bartender.

Over at the brownstone, Tiffany is in the midst of opening yet another piece of sexy lingerie. She's sitting on the lap of the so-called "cameraman" while she does it.

"I can't believe this, I think I have every color of the rainbow here," she said, looking at a short canary yellow slip.

"I like this one," the cameraman offered.

"I bet you do, honey," Tiffany laughed.

"It was definitely planned," Terry said. "See we all figured that you look great in every single color. So we wanted to make sure you - and Doug - had a little nightie to fit every occasion."

"It's wonderful, thank you so much," Tiffany said.

"Might I induce you to try that on later for me?" the cameraman asked.

"Honey, I'm tipsy, but I'm not drunk," she laughed.

"This might be the first time that I was turned down by someone at a bachelorette party instead of the other way around," he said.

"I bet you say that to all the women who turn you down, honey," Tiff said.

"You're the first," he said.

"Ooooooooooh," the ladies said in unison.

"I guess that's my cue to go," he said, lifting her off his lap so he could get up.

"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings," Tiff said.

"Awwwwwwwwww," the ladies said in unison.

"Your loss, sweetheart, I'm great," he said confidently, grabbing his gear and exiting the brownstone.

The women all keel over in laughter.

"Are you sure you don't want to rethink that, Tiff?" Terry teased. "I think you can still catch him."

"No, I think this is my last night of freedom and I'm just gonna be alone and savor it," Tiff said.

The women raise their glasses and clink in unison.


	22. Chapter 22

Later that night, a still tipsy Tiff is up in her room looking over the haul from the shower. She picks up various pieces of lingerie, trying to discern which would be the perfect one to wear on her wedding night. She starts trying on various ones. The floor-length spaghetti-strapped pearl-colored silk appeals to her the most. There's a knock at the door.

"Didn't we say you weren't going to see me until the wedding?" she said to herself, looking down at her negligee. "Oh well, it's not like he's not gonna see more than this tomorrow night."

She whips open the door ... to Sean. He's transfixed by the vision.

"What are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you," he said, putting his hand in his pocket.

"I don't want to talk," she said.

As he looked her over, the soft curls of her hair kissing her shoulder and the negligee clinging to her curves in all the right places, he forgets everything he wants to say.

She can feel the intensity of him looking at her. That power he always seemed to have over her. More intoxicating than the champagne. Before she can think twice, she pulls him into the room and shuts the door. They stare at each other, so many emotions going through both of their minds.

"I think you need to rethink this," he said.

"Letting you in here? Perhaps I do."

"No, not that. Don't marry him."

"Shut up. I mean it. Stop talking. Now."

Another staring contest. Everything Tiffany ever felt for Sean is bubbling up to the surface. It's too much for him to bear too, every instinct is willing him to take her in his arms. They close the gap and then there's no other choice to be made for either of them. They grab on to each other and start kissing wildly. They collide against the door, and don't held anything back, needing to have the other one more than anything else in the world at that moment.

He moves her toward the couch, still keeping her to him as tightly as he can, not allowing either of them a moment to breathe. He tosses one of the couch cushions aside, it knocks over a lamp as it crashes to the ground. Still holding fast to him with one arm, Tiffany helps by casting aside another cushion as they continue to kiss while pulling out the bed.

Cleaning up in the living room of the brownstone, Bobbie and Terry can hear some of the thuds emanating from her apartment.

"So much for waiting for the wedding night," Bobbie teased. The women both laugh.

"I didn't even see Doug come in," Terry said.

"Sneaky little devil, that one," Bobbie said.

Upstairs, Sean and Tiffany are still kissing and groping madly, but he still lays her down on the bed gently. She unloosens her grip around his waist long enough to help take off his coat and unbutton his shirt buttons. He's running his hands down her arms and across the silky negligee, driving her crazy in the best possible way. More kissing ensues, and more ... everything else too.

A couple hours later, they're entwined in each others' arms, there's no telling where one leaves off and the other starts, they're holding so fast to each other.

"You will always be the biggest adventure I've ever had," Sean chuckled.

"Same here," Tiffany admitted.

"There's something about you that drives me completely stark raving mad," he said. "I can't think straight. I can't be rational. And I don't want to."

"You know what I want?"

"Please tell me," he said in total honesty.

"I want to make love with you," she said.

"Isn't that what we just did?"

"No, that was sex. And it was great great sex, believe me. But there's a part of you I want so badly. I've seen it a couple of times when you let down your defenses. Times when you've been so tender and caring and everything wasn't just a game. I used to think because I saw it that maybe sometime you'd let me in. And I kept holding on trying to get there, but in reality, I was getting farther and farther away."

"It's not true. I've never felt closer to anyone in my life," he said.

"You're debonair, sexy ex-spy billionaire. You're the guy who women want to sleep with the night before they get married," she replied. "The man who gives them that gleam they have in their eyes that their husbands will never know about or understand. You're the one they won't forget.

"But I want to look into your eyes and I want you to look into mine and I want to be everything to you in every way, even if it's just one night," she continued. "I want to be the one you can't forget."

He pulls her to him in hopes of showing that he is that man and she is that woman for him. He splays kisses all along her body, stopping after a series of kisses on her lips and gazing into her eyes. They start to make love, and don't stop looking at each other except for brief moments when their eyes shut in passion and happiness.

He runs his hands along her face and gazes into her eyes as they move together. "You are the one I can't forget," he said.

The admission only makes them hold on to each other more fiercely, she runs her fingernails down his back and he tucks his arms underneath her so he can cradle her like she was the most precious thing he ever held. They return again and again to looking into each others' eyes just so each can see what they have in their own minds echoed on the other's face.

This goes on for hours, until they wear themselves out. She nestles into his arms and falls asleep. Sean listens to her heartbeat slowing down, her breathing returning to normal. When it does, then he falls asleep himself with her as close to him as it's possible to be.


	23. Chapter 23

Tiffany stirs in the bed the next morning. The smell of eggs and bacon are wafting through the air. It wakes her up further. She pulls a sheet closer to her and looks over to the counter. Sean's putting the finishing touches on an omelet, which he presents to her on a tray with orange juice and a red rose.

"Wow, this is amazing," she said.

"I was just thinking the same thing - about you," he said, regarding how perfectly tousled she looks at the moment. He presents the plate to her, she starts digging in.

"Really delicious," she said. "And I'm starving."

"I'll bet," he retorted.

"Gotta keep up my energy, right? After all, it is my wedding day," she said.

Sean looks back at her in total shock.

"You're still going to do it?" he asked incredulously.

"Of course I am. All the plans have been made. Doug's probably already at the church making sure everything's just right."

"But you can't."

"Of course I can," she said. "And I'm going to."

"But we..."

"Sean, I don't want you to misunderstand..."

"How could I misunderstand? After everything we said to each other and everything we were to each other last night, today you're planning on marrying someone else. How could I possibly see anything wrong in that?"

"I think I'm doing the right thing," she said.

"I don't see it," he replied quickly.

"You know, right now, it's perfect between us. It really is, I couldn't imagine anything better."

"So what's the problem?"

"The problem is it wouldn't stay that way," she tried to explain. "Last night was about a lot of things. It was about saying I love you even though we weren't meant to be."

"I think we are," he responded.

"I can't handle your job, Sean. The danger. Everything I used to love about that sort of thing, frankly scares me to death now. And I can't go through my life worrying about it and bothering you about it in turn. Because then maybe you start to change, worrying about me worrying about you. You know, I used to think that all I ever wanted was adventure and excitement. But I was wrong. Because now I'm actually thinking about a family. How strange is that? Can you imagine me with a baby?"

"Actually I can," he said, very easily picturing it in his mind.

"So you know, in about an hour you're going to go off to your office," she continued. "And there's probably a beautiful damsel in distress already waiting there for you. And she'll tell you her story and you'll get wrapped up in trying to help her. You'll be fine. Better than fine. You'll be where you need to be."

Tiffany leads him to the door and opens it. Sean regretfully steps through it, then takes her left hand in his.

"May I kiss the bride?"

"I think we've already covered that ... and then some," she retorted.

Sean nods, he looks down at her engagement ring, then raises her hand to his lips so he can kiss it, avoiding the ring entirely. He looks into her eyes and waits until he's sure she's looking back.

"I'll be there for you if you ever need me," he said. She gets all choked up, but nods. He holds on to her hand a little longer than he should, then slowly pulls away.

"Bye," she says, trying to avoid crying completely. She closes the door and leans against it.

Outside, Sean pulls a little box out of his pocket. He opens it and runs a finger over the emerald and diamond ring he planned to give her when he came over the previous night. He tightens his lips as he snaps the box closed and walks away.

Sean enters Anna's hospital room, his hand in his pocket fidgeting with the ring box.

"How's my lovely partner today?" he asked.

"Much better, thanks," Anna replied. He sits down in a chair by her bed. "You all right?" she asked.

"Fine, fine," he said.

"You don't look fine. Might that have something to do with a certain wedding that Robert and Robin are on their way to?" Sean remains silent. "Not talking, eh? This is serious."

"Not a lot to say," he offered.

"She's about to marry someone else. I think there's quite a lot to talk about."

"I'm not what she needs," Sean said.

"You're what she wants," Anna replied.

"She needs and wants security."

"It's not like you can't provide for her."

"No, that's not what I mean. All the stuff we inevitably find ourselves wrapped up in - the danger. It's too much for her. She doesn't want it in her life and she shouldn't have to have it that way."

"Oh Sean," Anna said, now realizing the scope of the situation. "You really love her."

"I love her more than I've ever loved anyone in my life," he says. "Enough to let her go."

"There's got to be a way to work it out."

"To protect her from the way our lives are? Tell that to Felicia, who can't even find her husband."

"As much as we hate it, it's in the line of Frisco's duty," Anna said.

"You can't believe that after what just happened to you," Sean snapped. "We can turn around at any moment and be thrown back into danger by someone with a vendetta. Putnam. Last summer with the DVX. We'll never really be free of it."

"You can make it work if you try, Sean. I know you. You can do anything you set your mind to. Even marriage."

"I don't know."

"This is something you want," Anna said. "Something you really really want and I'd hate to see you throw it away and regret that every single day."

"What I want is for her to have a happy life," he said simply.

"Oh God, Sean. Go find her and tell her you love her. Because no one will work harder to protect her than you."

Sean mulls over that fact. But Anna's not done speaking her peace yet. "And one more thing. I hope this will mean more to you since I'm saying it right now. ... You know what's really dangerous? Not living your life."

He purses his lips together. "Thanks, partner," he said, taking her head in his and leaning over to kiss her.

The ceremony's getting underway at the church. Tiffany's surprised at how calm she is. Her designer friend, Delfina, is making the last adjustments to the silk tulle headdress.

"I think it looks simply marvelous on you darling," Delfina said.

"Thank you, Delfina darling," Tiff said. "It certainly taxed you to the fullest, pulling all of this off in two weeks."

"Well that fiance of yours, let me tell you, he got me so excited by his idea of this dress with the form-fitting bodice and the sashed waist, I was actually done days earlier than I thought I would be," Delfina said.

"That's Doug for you," she said. "Could charm honey out of a bee."

"Out of this one anyway," Delfina grinned.

They could hear the organs piping up for "Here Comes the Bride" before Cheryl even knocked on the door.

"Sounds like they're ready for the big entrance," Delfina said, lifting her train behind Tiffany so she could go out the door.

"Sis, you look absolutely radiant," said Cheryl, resplendent in her deep purple dress. Ahead of them was Robin, looking as adorable as ever in a lighter shade of purple with a basket full of rose petals.

"Thank you, so do you," she said.

"I wish Mamma and Daddy could be hear to see you," Cheryl said.

"Doug and I are going to go visit them when we get back from the honeymoon," Tiff said.

"Hey, let's quit the lollygagging and get this girl married," Delfina said, tugging on Tiff's arm. "Now you, march, young lady."

"Yes, ma'am," Cheryl said, amused.

"OK, now take a deep breath, like the time you were doing that press conference in Cannes that you were so panicked about," Delfina said.

"Thanks for reminding me about that," Tiff smirked.

"You got through it. Just breathe. You're the most beautiful woman in this whole place. No one can hold a candle to you, darling," Delfina said, stretching out the train behind her as the organ announced the arrival of the bride.

The congregation stood up and Tiffany held her flowers perfectly in front of her. She started down the aisle, not looking either way, only down at the end where Doug was waiting for her. She could see his mouth was slightly open, she assumed that meant that she looked more than merely presentable. She started feeling a little strange, like she wasn't in her own body. She felt kind of like she was watching herself walk down the aisle.

She finally got to Doug, he took her hand in his. "You look so beautiful," he leaned over and said. It was echoing strangely in her head.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony. If there's anyone here who knows any reason why these two may not be joined together, let him speak now or forever hold his peace."

There couldn't have been a more perfect moment for Sean to appear at the back of the church... and he did.


	24. Chapter 24

Tiffany is frozen to the spot when the minister asks if anyone knows of a reason why she and Doug couldn't be joined in holy matrimony. A voice in her head could almost hear Sean speaking up with what could have been a very good reason for that. Part of her almost wishes that he was there to do so, but she knows she's the one who told him that they both needed to move on because there wasn't a future for them.

In the back of the church, Sean also grapples with that statement. He wants to speak up with every fiber of his being, but her welfare also is eating away at him. So while he flashes on the incredible night that they just had together, he also remembers how Anna had just escaped death at the hands of Grant Putnam. He puts his hands in his pockets. One of them closes around the box that he had planned to present to her along with a vow of undying love. It was that way. He did love her unconditionally. But now there's a condition, he wasn't what she ultimately needed to be happy.

So after what seems to be an eternal pause, but really just lasts a few seconds in length, the minister continues with the vows.

Doug looks deeply into Tiffany's eyes as he promises to love and honor her until they are parted by death. He is so earnest and looks so happy about marrying her that it sort of strengthens her resolve. But she still trembles when she recites them back to him. And her mind isn't on the man she was making her vows to, but the one she's leaving behind. Saying "forsaking all others" sends a chill down her spine that anyone who notices might have considered just nerves, but she knows otherwise.

Sean couldn't watch her gaze into Doug's eyes and say those same words. He wasn't accustomed to giving up what he wanted for someone else's benefit, particularly since he had reached the conclusion that she's the one he wants to be with. He listens for the slightest hesitation in her voice, which he would have deemed to have been a good enough reason to stop all of this from happening. But there is none.

He raises his eyes to watch Doug continue to bind himself to Tiffany by placing the wedding ring on her finger and he lowers his eyes again when she does the same. His grasp on the box in his pocket tightens.

"By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife," the minister said.

Doug leans in to kiss Tiffany, who internally couldn't have been feeling more confused but outwardly looks more radiant than she had any right to. "I love you," he said, brushing his lips past her ear before swooping over to her lips to make it official.

The congregation - save Sean - applauds and the wedding party comes over to congratulate them.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. and Mrs. Baxter," the minister said to cheers as they walk down the aisle together. It isn't until they had almost reached the doors at the back of the chapel that Sean catches Tiffany's eyes. Her heart misses a beat and she even wonders for a second if she just conjured him because she wants him to be there before she realizes that he actually is. This makes her even more skittish. She bites her lip and continues to walk down the aisle with Doug and out the door.

"I love you," Sean said as he finally releases the hold on the box.

Doug and Tiffany are holding court in the receiving line on the front steps of the church as seemingly all of Port Charles wishes them well. Robert envelops his old friend in a hug and offers a hearty handshake to her new husband. Robin elicits a smile from Tiffany by telling her she looks beautiful. But the rest of the time, her eyes are seeking out Sean. He patiently waits at the back of the line, and she grows more and more frightened of what he might say when he gets to them.

At the moment, Bobbie is congratulating them both. "I didn't know quite what would happen after you flew in the face of tradition like that, but I thought the wedding was beautiful," she said. Doug's confused, Tiffany's worried. "You know, the groom's not supposed to see the bride before the wedding," she continued.

"We didn't," Doug said. "You saw me go home, remember? I didn't come back."

Tiffany jumps in and starts to do some fast and furious damage control. "The noise, right? That was just me. I was a little drunk, knocked over a lamp. Then I got a little nervous and I just started throwing things around. I'll admit I kind of made a mess of things. ... You know me, one thing sets me off and then, well, it's Hurricane Tiffany. I guess you're going to have to get used to that," she said to Doug.

"Kind of looking forward to that," he said honestly.

The receiving line continues, and Sean steps up to both of them. Both Tiffany and Doug eye him warily, but Sean extends one hand to Doug to shake and takes Tiffany's in his other.

"Congratulations," he said genuinely to Doug. "She's one in a million."

"Thank you," Doug said back with equal graciousness, aware of Sean's misgivings but not exactly wanting to keep this particular conversation going.

Doug turns to greet the next guest in the line, Sean's still holding on to Tiff's hand. He's running his fingers gently over her hand and they're staring into each other's eyes.

"No," she mouthed. "Please."

He continues to look at her, saying without words that he'll always be there for her. She gets the message and tears start to come to her eyes.

"Honey, this is Simon I was telling you about from my research project," Doug says, breaking up the moment by showing her off to the next person in line. "This is my wonderful wife, Tiffany Hill Baxter."

"It's nice to meet you, Doug has told me so much about you," Tiff said, recovering quickly. Sean backs away from the group and walks straight into Robert.

"Don't scuff the shoes!" Robert mock-chides. Sean attempts a smile and Robert quickly sees that his friend isn't doing so well. "OK, we're gonna get my little girl home, then there are two stools in a seedy bar with our name on them."

Sean nods defeatedly and lets himself be let away. He steals one last glance at the "happy couple" before he goes. He turns away the second before Tiffany looks his way.

Later that night, Doug carries his bride over the threshhold.

"Welcome home, Mrs. Baxter. Sorry we can't go on our honeymoon yet, sweetheart, but in a couple weeks, I promise," he said.

The words "I promise" resonate in Tiff's head. She remembers some half-hearted ones Sean made to her, then sort of shakes her head a little to get them off her mind.

"So I have a little surprise for you," Doug continued. He carries her to a room in the house. "I wanted to give you this room."

"I don't understand," she said.

"Well, this room is for you. And you can do whatever you want with it. It can be a parlor or an office or a nursery. Whatever you want. I have a decorator's number poised and ready to have anything and everything brought in for you," he said.

Tiffany is truly touched. "That is very very sweet. Thank you, husband."

"You're welcome, wife," he said. "Now if I could interest you in maybe another room."

She smiles knowingly. "Could you give me a couple minutes? I have something kind of planned myself."

"Worthwhile things are worth waiting a while for," he said, giving her a little kiss before she disappears into the room.

Tiffany stands in front of the mirror and regards herself in it for a while, brushing her hair. "You made your choice, and you're going to have to live with it. Doug loves you. He'll make a great husband, a wonderful father." But it's the words she isn't saying that she kept hearing in her head.

She puts some finishing touches on her appearance and goes back to open the door. Doug's leaning against the wall, pretending to be calm, cool and collected but actually seeming more nervous and maybe a little excited. She chuckles and tugs his arms so he comes back into the bedroom with her. She takes off his tuxedo jacket and undoes the bowtie.

"Thank you for marrying me," Doug said.

"Thank you for marrying me," she echoed.

"I'm the luckiest man in the world," he added. "With the most beautiful wife."

He takes Tiffany in his arms, leans her back on the bed and they begin their life together.


	25. Chapter 25

Tiffany went through the first three weeks off her marriage without seeing much of Sean. It was just easier that way, so she'd work all day and night at the station and then go home for dinner and quiet time with Doug. She wasn't thinking about Sean every minute of every hour of every day, and she was looking forward to going on her upcoming honeymoon with Doug. He had just wrapped up another year of research, at which time he always had to report to the powers-that-be on the project in New York City.

She would have gone with him on the trip to the Big Apple, but with a two-week vacation coming up, she felt guilty about neglecting her own workload, so she stayed on in Port Charles and at the brownstone. Now she was home alone every night, but she started trying out some recipes. When she perfected her sister's favorite meal from childhood - chicken cutlet - she invited Cheryl over.

"So how are things going with you and Robert?" Tiffany asked.

"I think we're kind of getting along rather nicely," Cheryl said.

"I'm surprised you could fit me into your busy schedule in that case," her older sister said.

"I had to find out how married life was treating you," the younger sibling responded.

"Pretty good. I have to admit I wasn't sure how it would go, I've been kind of used to being on my own for about half my life. But Doug's very easy to get along with."

"As opposed to?" Cheryl asked.

Tiffany shakes her head. "No one. I just meant we don't butt heads at all."

"Kind of hard to butt anything when he's not here," Cheryl said.

"Well we'd spent every free second together for three weeks, I kind of like having the place all to myself now," Tiff said. "And then I started trying out some recipes ... before you make fun of me, I do remember some from when we had to cook as part of our chores."

"I have to admit it tastes pretty darn good," Cheryl said.

"I'm glad you like it. I gave up the 11 o'clock news for you tonight so I could start working on it," Tiff admitted.

"Well, it's really ... aaaaaaargh!" Cheryl cries out in pain.

"Cheryl? What is it?" Tiffany runs to her sister's side.

"I don't know. It really hurts bad."

"I'll call for help." Tiffany carefully guides Cheryl into the living room and lays her down on the couch. She grabs the phone off the end table and calls 911. "Yes, I need an ambulance at 1726 Lakefront Terrace. It's my sister. She's having debilitating pain and she only has one kidney. Please hurry."

She hangs up and goes back to the couch. She lifts Cheryl's head and puts it in her lap. She tries to keep both of them calm.

A half-hour later, they're at the hospital and Cheryl's being examined by Alan Quartermaine. As Alan comes out to the lounge to tell Tiffany about the threat to Cheryl's life, Sean spots them as he arrives with Anna, who he volunteered to give a ride for her checkup. The grave look on Tiffany's face concerns him greatly and after he escorts Anna to a different floor for her exam, he returns to the lounge to try and find Tiff. But she's no longer there.

"Did you see where Tiffany went?" Sean asked when Alan walked by the nurses station.

"I know Cheryl wanted to see Robert, she might be trying to get a hold of him," Alan said.

"I'll see what I can do on that front, I might be able to help," Sean said. "Is Cheryl going to be all right?"

"I really can't say anything about her condition," Alan said.

"That bad?" Sean asked.

Alan's look confirmed what Sean needed to know.

"I'll try and find Tiffany too," Sean continued and headed for the elevator.

Tiffany's on the roof of General Hospital trying to catch her breath. Sean opens the door cautiously and he breathes a sigh of relief at finally finding her.

"Are you all right?" he asked, crossing to her with concern.

"This is my fault," she said, looking off in the distance.

"It's not your fault, Tiffany," he said.

"You don't understand, Sean. She only has one kidney because of me. Because of what I did to her - an accident - when we were kids."

He waits patiently for her to continue.

"We were just having one of those fights that sisters and brothers always have. I'm not even sure what it was about. Cheryl could probably tell you..."

Tiff freezes up as she realizes that at the moment Cheryl can't tell anyone anything.

"So I grabbed this bat, I was still yelling after her, but she had turned away. And I just threw it," she said, starting to crack. "And it hit her ... in the back ... she keeled right over. It didn't even look real. I thought she was faking. She always did that - played hurt so I'd get in trouble. ... But I really hurt her. It was stupid. I've replayed it so many times in my head. I hit her ... and she was in the hospital for weeks."

Sean's just listening supportively, trying to brush away her tears, but then a new flood springs up.

"They wouldn't let me go in her room. They said I was too young. But I knew it was because they blamed me. I blamed me too. ... Then the day they wheeled her into surgery ... she had all these tubes coming out of her. She looked like a doll Cheryl had stuck all these pins into - like a voodoo doll. I think it was supposed to be me. She wanted me to suffer, but instead she's the one who had all these things sticking out of her. ... And it was my fault."

Tiffany starts crying harder and breaks out of Sean's grasp. "Don't worry about me. You should be worrying about her."

"I'm worried about both of you," he said.

"I don't deserve it."

"You were just a kid. It was an accident."

"Which she's still paying for today," Tiff said. "Do you know what it's like to be responsible for an innocent person's pain?"

"Actually I do," Sean said, thinking long and hard about his own personal history.

Tiffany looks up at him with big puffy eyes and she knows he's telling her the truth and not just what she wants to hear.

"There's quite a lot of that in my former line of work," he admitted.

"Is that why you gave it up?" she asked.

"Partly," he said hesitatingly.

"There's so much that you never would have been able to tell me," she concluded.

"And there was kind of a lot that I still want to tell you," he added.

She stepped back, aware that there was considerable subtext going on between them at the moment. "I'm married," she said.

"You know, I think I could accept that a lot better if you looked happy. But you don't look like yourself at all. You look haunted, almost desperate."

"My sister's in the hospital."

"You started looking this way a long time before now," Sean said. "At the wedding in fact. I should have grabbed you and run out of the front door of the church."

A faint glint appears in Tiff's eyes, the recollection that she wanted that to happen on her wedding day.

"This is what I mean. Just a slight hint that we belong together and you light up like a match to a stove," he said.

"You don't think you're just seeing what you want to?"

"I'm not just seeing what I want to - I'm seeing what's there. ... You're feeling closed in ... claustrophobic. I know that feeling all too well, remember? And I don't think it's the fact that you're married. I think it's the fact that you married him."

Tiffany's grief is turning into irritation. "You don't know anything about our lives."

"I know more than you think I do. ... just from looking at your face."

They're having a bit of a staredown when Doug pops into the doorway. He swiftly moves over to his wife. "You OK, honey?" he asked, leading her back inside. "I came as soon as I heard."

Sean shakes his head at seeing the way Doug coddles her. He follows them inside.


	26. Chapter 26

Cheryl disappears on Tiffany after telling her point-blank that she won't take her kidney and Sean goes to Washington to help Felicia try to find out more information on the missing Frisco. Tiff finally gets a letter from Cheryl, who says she needs time to think, but her sister has met up with old friend Olivia - sister of Cheryl's former love Julian.

Tiffany wakes up in bed with Doug the next morning. He's been watching her sleep fitfully.

"Morning," he said gently.

"Morning," she echoed.

"Feeling any better?" he asked, brushing her hair out of her eyes

"I guess, I still don't understand why Cheryl won't let me help her," she said.

"I think she's about as willful as her sister," he said.

"It's a little too early for that kind of humor, I think."

"Is it too early to be talking about rescheduling our honeymoon? Cause I've got this little window of time. It's not Paris, but we could be alone together for a couple days," Doug said.

"I just don't think it's the right time. We could get a call at any moment that she needs my kidney and I need to be here if that happens," Tiffany replied.

"I don't think she's going to let you do that, sweetheart," Doug said.

"If it gets particularly bad, maybe she'd change her mind," Tiff said.

"And that's all it is?"

"Of course that's it. My sister's life is hanging in the balance."

"OK, then how about this? We both take a few days off from work and honeymoon here by ourselves. It wouldn't be the 'official' honeymoon, but it sure would be great for both of us to not be running off at a moment's notice."

The phone rings, almost mocking him with the insistent tone. Tiffany reaches over for it. "Felicia, hi. Any news? ... Whoa, whoa, whoa ... slow down. I have no idea what you're saying, I just woke up. ... The wire feeds on Canada? Well of course, you can look at the tapes but how's that gonna ... Yeah, of course, I'll be down there in an hour. ... Yes, I'll call Greg. If you get there ahead of me, he'll set you up in a room with everything you need. Of course, it's no trouble, anything you need. ... Yes, I'll see you soon."

She's finally got that burst of energy and jumps out of bed. "I gotta get to the station. Felicia's just a mess. She thinks going over the wire feeds from Canada will help her get a lead on Frisco, but I think she's just looking for a needle in a haystack if you ask me." She pulls clothes out of the closet and then looks back at Doug, who looks resigned to her departure. "I'm sorry, sweetheart, it's just a really bad time right now. I have to help her. Frisco and Felicia are two of my very best friends in the world."

"I understand," he said, but he doesn't really believe what he's saying.

"We'll have our honeymoon, it'll be the best one ever. I swear," she said.

"Is HE going to be at the station?" Doug couldn't keep himself from asking.

Tiffany looks at him questioningly, and she immediately can see on his face who he's worried about. "Felicia didn't say anything about Sean. This is not about him. It's about Frisco."

"OK, sorry," he said, again less than convincingly. Tiffany goes into the bathroom to shower and dress for the day.

When Tiffany arrives at the studio, she's greeted by Greg, who informs her that Felicia is already on the premises and going through the tapes of Canada. She goes into the room to see her friend.

"Felicia, hi," she said as brightly as she can. "Anything I can do for you?"

"No, I'm fine," Felicia said sharply, not taking her eyes off the monitor.

"I can assign you a couple of interns if you want," she said. "You just tell them what you need, they're great at watching TV."

"No, it's good. I just need to do this," Felicia responded.

Still not having made eye contact with her, Tiffany goes to the monitor and presses the pause button. "Sweetheart, I really don't know how this will help you. The chances of there being something on any of these tapes - and there are just hours and hours of them - are so small."

Felicia looks her in the eye for the moment, and then fixes her gaze on the ground. "I have to do something. You don't understand. I know ... I know that I'm probably not going to get a lead. But I can't just sit around in the office or at home and wait for that phone to ring."

Tiffany studies her for a long beat, thinking about how much Felicia loves Frisco and how brave she's being about everything. "OK," she said. "But if there's anything I can do - and I mean anything - let me know."

"I will, thanks," she said and her eyes shift back to the monitor impatiently. Tiff presses the play button and Felicia goes back to work. Tiffany watches for a couple moments, sends a little prayer up to the heavens and exits the office.

At the PI office, Sean and Anna discuss his trip with Felicia to Washington, D.C.

"I still can't believe you broke into the WSB offices," Anna said.

"They're giving us the run-around, I just wanted to see if they had something more," Sean said.

"You'd do anything for that girl, wouldn't you?" Anna asked.

"Felicia? Yes, I would. And Frisco too. I can't help feeling it's my fault he got tied up in all that to begin with," Sean said.

"You're carrying around a lot of guilt on a lot of fronts," Anna offered.

"Don't start this again, Anna."

"I'm not starting anything. I just think it's really interesting is all. You've come a long way, Sean. You know that old expression 'People can't change'. Well I think they need to revise it, because some can."

"Now you're going to say something particularly corny like 'I was changed by love', aren't you?"

Anna pretends to think on that for a minute. "No, I won't say it," she said.

"Good."

"I'll just think it," she continued.

Sean ignored her. "I'm going over to the station to see if I can help," he said.

"Which one of them?" Anna teased, raising her eyebrow.

"Fel-icia," Sean said and dramatically exits with a strong close of the door. He leans on it on the other side and the other reason for going crosses his mind.


	27. Chapter 27

Tiffany's pushing around papers on her desk. But really she's thinking about Frisco and Felicia ... and Sean and Doug. She's particularly thinking about how brave Felicia is for always standing by her man when she herself turned, ran and made the safe choice. Just for a second, she wonders what Sean's doing. And at that precise moment, he knocks on the door and walks into her office.

"Sorry I asked," she said under her breath.

"Hi," Sean said, happy to see her for the first time in a few days.

She purses her lips tightly in silent greeting.

"How's your sister?" he asked.

"She keeps leaving messages at places that she knows I'm not, her way of avoiding me, I guess," Tiffany said.

"But she's well?"

"So far, so good."

"And you?" he finally gets around to asking the question he wants the answer to the most.

"I'm fine. ... Other than being 'haunted' and what was the other word you used, 'desperate'."

"I'm sorry about that, I shouldn't have said it," Sean said.

"When have you ever said any-thing that you didn't mean?" Tiffany replied.

"I shouldn't have since it hurt you," he said, looking into her eyes.

"You know what drives me crazy about you?" she asked, regretting it as soon as the words came out and he gives her "the look" that she could feel to the bottom of her toes.

"What?" he asked, cocking his head sideways as he gazes back at her.

"How all of a sudden when I became someone else's, THEN I was of utmost importance to you," she said, leaning heavily on her old feelings to bury the ones overwhelming her at the moment.

"That's not true. It couldn't be further from the truth," Sean said. "That part of me I gave you. You still have it."

"It's just because we can't be together," Tiffany said. "That's your modus operandi, Sean. You want the ones you can't have."

"You know that's not what it's about between us. Don't trivialize it."

"I'm sorry, I'm not. I'm trying to make this easier."

"It can't be done," he said.

"I'm sorry, Sean. But there's nothing I would change. I'm happy. Doug ... he doesn't treat me like an annoyance. I'm an equal, someone he wants to share things with. His life, his work."

"I'm sorry too, because I firmly believe he's incapable of loving you the way you should be loved."

"You're wrong. Doug and I ... we don't have a marriage of convenience. We're together. In every way. I'm sure you get my meaning."

Sean did. And he didn't really want to think about her naked in Doug's arms at night. Well, not the part with Doug anyway.

"So could you go see if you could do something for Felicia? She's the one we need to focus on," Tiff said.

Sean nods and leaves the office. Tiff takes a deep breath and fiddles with her wedding ring.

After the late news, Tiffany enters the brownstone, exhausted partly from the job and partly from the confrontation with Sean. Doug's waiting for her with two glasses of champagne.

"Hello, my love," he said, kissing her first and giving the glass of champagne second.

"Hi," she replied. "It's so good to be home."

"You look so tired," he said. "I think what you need is a long, hot bath."

Tiff's not feeling up to being romantic at the moment, so she shakes her head.

"Just for you," he added, reading her mind.

Not wanting to fight, she lets him lead her upstairs to the bathroom in the master bedroom. As he starts the bath, she strips her clothes off and puts on a robe so he wouldn't try to help her with that part too. After a few minutes, he comes out of the bathroom to escort her in.

"You know no matter how hard your day has been, you always manage to be the most heavenly creature I ever laid eyes on," he said.

She smiles despite herself. "And you're the most sensitive husband," she retorted somewhat absently.

"Come with me, Mrs. Baxter," he said, leading her to a tub full of bubbles. He holds the robe as she slips out of it and into the water. He kneels beside her and starts to knead her shoulders. "You are really tight. I should wash your hair like you wash mine when I've had a tough day. It feels like a massage the way you do it."

"Sounds nice," she said.

"Great, I've been waiting to put these magic fingers to good use," he said eagerly.

He reaches for the bottle of shampoo, then pulls the detachable shower head off the dock and sets about washing Tiff's hair. She flashes back to when she was in the shower with Sean and he was washing her hair for her. How his fingers felt as he lathered her hair and then rinsed it. It had been like a massage.

Doug peers down at her and sees her mind is completely elsewhere. "Tiff?" he asked.

"Yeah?" she replied, unable to hide her slightly irritated reaction to the fact that he broke the reverie.

"Please don't tell me that he washed your hair."

"Do we have to talk about this now? I'm finally relaxing."

"I can see that," he said with a tinge of jealousy.

"What do you want, Doug? Do you want me not to tell you the truth or do you just want it to not be true?

He stands silent for a moment. "I'm sorry I asked," he finally said.

"Please don't turn this into another competition thing," she said gently.

"I don't think I'm the one who's doing that."

"I'm not either. Because you won. I married you. I intend to be married to one person in my lifetime and it's you. Why does this have to keep coming up?"

"Because he's still there between us," Doug said.

"He's not."

"Everything we ever say or do, you've said or done with him already."

"It's not true. We weren't together that long," she said. "But it's not even just that. That relationship ... was never on solid ground. There was something missing. We kept things from each other. And it's something I had from the very first minute with you."

She almost cringes when she hears herself say those words to him, knowing that she's got a pretty big secret she doesn't ever want him to find out, so she changes her approach.

"I felt like I could say things to you without judgment," Tiff said. "But I'm starting not to feel that way anymore. And I don't want to lose that because it's one of the things I appreciate most about us."

"You're right. I'm sorry," Doug said.

"You don't have to be sorry, I just don't want to lose what's unique and special about us. That's a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Doug lowers his head and kisses her wedding and engagement rings, gives her the glass of champagne and lets her soak in the tub and relax. But not only has her mood not improved, but she's somehow feeling even worse.


	28. Chapter 28

Sean's back at the office after seeing Felicia safely home. Anna's still there as well, since her partner and their assistant was off at the television station all day.

"Burning the midnight oil?" Sean asked.

"Just trying to get all our ducks in a row," Anna said. "I take it you didn't make any headway."

Sean shakes his head. "But Felicia just won't give up. She wants to go back again tomorrow. It was all I could do to get her to stop for the night."

"See Tiffany?"

"I was wondering how long you would wait before bringing her up. Yes, I saw her."

"How's she doing?" Anna asked.

"I think she's stressed out about her sister and she really had a soft spot for Frisco, so that's bothering her too."

"Not really what I meant," Anna replied.

"I don't think she's happy. She's saying all the right things, but there's this look in her eyes. I don't see the light," he said before taking a long pause. "But maybe she's right. Maybe I'm seeing what I want to."

"Sean, don't short-sell your instincts. They're pretty good, and probably particularly strong when it comes to her."

"It gets more difficult every time I even see her. I thought watching her get married would be the worst part. But it's not," he sighed.

"Not easy being noble," Anna said.

"Not really a role I'm used to fulfilling," Sean said.

"I can't say I ever thought I'd see Sean Donely this head over heels." She takes a long pause before continuing. "And I know she was for you too. Probably still is. I know from personal experience about loving two men at the same time. She's probably pretty confused."

Sean goes to his desk, pulls out a bottle of scotch and pours himself a liberal glass full as Anna packs up to go home. He leans back in the chair as thoughts of Tiffany overwhelm him.

"Go easy on that stuff, OK?" Anna says, trying not to sound too much like a doting mother.

"Just taking the edge off, partner. I'll be fine." He takes a big swig.

"Night," she said, stopping to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Uh oh, the sympathy kiss," Sean teased.

"I love you, you know," Anna said as she turned to leave.

"The sympathy kiss AND the 'I love you', I must be worse off than I thought," he added, blowing a kiss back at her anyway. "Night."

Another long sip for Sean and a couple dozen more memories cross his mind.

A couple hours later, Sean opens the door to his penthouse. He goes out the balcony doors and looks out at the city for a few minutes. He remembers being out there with Tiffany when they first met and how fun and flirty the evening had been. He turns to go to the liquor cabinet and continue what he started earlier. As he pulls off the top of the bottle, he sees a flash of white out of the corner of his eye. A very familiar flash of white at that. He puts down the bottle and looks over in that direction - and sees Tiffany! Wearing one of his dress shirts and apparently nothing else yet.

Sean's so stunned he hasn't processed the vision. In fact, he thinks he's seeing things. Maybe a little too much alcohol, maybe a little too much truth. He blinks. She's still there. And the light's back in her eyes, because she's sizing him up like she did that night on the balcony.

"Gonna say something or just stand there?" she chided.

"What?..." he started.

"Is there more there?" she said when he didn't finish the sentence. "Can't believe it. Sean Donely shocked into silence. Miracles happen every day."

"This is definitely one of them," he said. "Should I ask what you're doing here or just shut up and be grateful that you are here?"

"Dealer's choice," she retorted.

"God, you're beautiful," he said, taking her all in.

"Nice choice. So what do we do now?"

"I can think of a few things," Sean said with a smile. "You look spectacular in my shirt, by the way."

"I know."

Sean goes over to the stereo and puts on some Van Morrison. "I'd like to dance," he said, sidling back over to her and swooping her expertly into his arms.

"Dance?" Tiffany says with surprise. "All right then. Dancing it is."

They stare deeply into each other's eyes as they circle around the room. They look at total ease with one another. His hand slides down her side and settles on her hip, where he slightly tightens his grip.

"Gonna kiss you now," he said.

"About time," she said.

He pulls her toward him, they keep dancing as their lips meet hungrily. They kiss as seamlessly as they dance, nibbling and puckering with perfect ebb and flow. This continues as the record plays out. Sean goes to flip it over, when he does, Tiffany sheds his shirt. When he turns back around, his glance is twice as smoldering, but he takes her back in his arms for more dancing. She laughs heartily at his resolve despite the obvious desire. His hands start to roam a lot further.

"We gonna dance all night?" she wondered aloud.

"I kind of wanted to show you that this is not just about sex for me," he said.

"I see," she said, eyes twinkling.

"But I want you very badly right now," he added.

"I do too. So take me to your bed, please."

Sean whisks her upstairs. He lays her tenderly on the bed, she watches almost hungrily as he disrobes himself and then returns his focus to her. The music's reverberating through the walls as they reconnect in the most intimate way possible.

The next morning, Sean awakens in his bed. It's empty. And he's clinging to the white shirt that Tiffany had been wearing the night before. "Check that, that she obviously wasn't wearing and then not wearing last night," Sean said. "What's it going to take to get this woman out of your head, Donely?"


	29. Chapter 29

Tiffany decides to go to the brownstone in the morning to pick up Felicia and bring her back to the station to continue her search through the videotapes. She enters the brownstone wistfully, remembering the night before her wedding - the last night she spent there.

"Hi Tiff," Terry said upon seeing her. "Long time, no see."

"Morning," Tiffany said. "I've come to get Felicia."

"She's already gone," Terry said.

"Really? Woman doesn't waste any time."

"I think she was having trouble sleeping, probably was waiting for hours to get up and out," Terry said.

Tiff nodded. "Good to see you. We'll have to do lunch soon."

"Absolutely, any time. Call me or I'll call you."

Sean walks in the front door just as Tiffany's about to walk out of it. He's a little extra taken aback given the nature of his very intricate memory from the previous night.

"She's already gone," Tiff said.

"Wow," the distracted Sean replied. "And I was worried about being here too early."

"Why are you looking at me so funny?" she asked.

"You didn't happen to stop by the penthouse last night, did you?" he responded, still not quite sure if he had imagined it all or not.

"Uh no, why?"

"Nothing," he said, covering. "The doorman said a woman stopped by but didn't leave her name or number. Was just asking."

"A woman?" she replied with a tinge of jealousy in her voice despite her best efforts to hide that. "You're seeing someone?"

"Well, I can't go on indefinitely in limbo, right? Everyone's getting on with their lives."

"Right."

"Maybe I should go get married to someone I'm not in love with," he said.

Tiffany looks like she'd been slapped in the face after hearing that and Sean regrets having said it immediately. She heads for the door and goes out on the front steps.

"Tiffany, wait. I'm sorry."

"Why be sorry? You're right. I can't keep doing this to you. I had my moment the night before I got married right upstairs in this very brownstone, then I made a decision for the both of us and it's very unfair of me to turn around and ask for more from you. I can't hold on to you with one hand and push you away with the other. "

He grabs onto her with both hands. "You want to know if you're still the one I can't forget? Yes. You are. I still love you. I don't know how to stop. Is that what you need to hear?"

Four men are approaching the brownstone, but Sean and Tiffany don't see them because they're transfixed on each other.

"Sean, I..." she started to say.

Two of the men grab each of them, putting cloths with chloroform on them over their noses until they pass out. Both of them struggle as long as they can before they are eventually subdued. They're quickly carried off and into a van waiting on the street.

Sometime later, Tiffany gets slapped across the face to bring her around, and even that didn't totally counteract the effects of the drug that knocked her out.

"We want you to tell us about Frisco," a voice said.

Tiffany's brow furrowed. "Couldn't you just go to a travel agent?" she said through the haze. "This seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through in order to find out about some California hot spots."

"Your HUSBAND ... Frisco Jones," the voice demanded.

Tiffany's head didn't get any clearer after that statement. "My husband ..." she said aimlessly, her voice trailing off. Then she remembered where she had been the last time she was conscious. "Sean. Where's Sean?"

"We can talk about Mr. Donely in a few minutes. Right now we want all the information you have on your husband."

Tiff was feeling less lucid as the conversation went along, despite the fact that she was becoming more fully awake by the minute.

"He's a research scientist at General Hospital," she said. "I don't know what he's working on. I can't help you with that."

"No!" yelled one of the kidnappers who seemed to be running out of patience. "You tell us about the man you supposedly love right now or we will hurt you."

Now Tiffany was even more confused. She wasn't sure what answer they were looking for. The man she loved, well, how would they know about that, she thought.

"Sean?" she asked weakly.

"This is getting us absolutely nowhere," the irritated kidnapper said. "I'd be surprised if she even knew her own name."

"I do know my name," a drowsy Tiff said indignantly. "Tiffany Hill." She thought about that again. "Tiffany Baxter. ... Tiffany Hill Baxter."

"Unbelievable!" the upset kidnapper railed. "Your name is Jones. Felicia Jones."

"You think I'm Felicia Jones?" Tiff said, starting to get a little more clear-headed and amused by the prospect at the same time. "I got news for you. I'm not her. Didn't you have a description? 'Cause, yeah, we both have blonde hair, but I gotta say the similarities pretty much stop right there."

"You are Felicia Jones, your husband is Frisco," another kidnapper said.

Still a little punch-drunk, Tiffany starts giggling at the prospect. "Me and Frisco, eh? Has possibilities, I have to say."

"Do you know where Frisco Jones is, Mrs. Jones?"

"You two just won't let up on that, will you? ... No, I don't know where Frisco Jones is. Do you? Because he's my friend and I'd really like to see him again."

A woman who has been watching this interaction via monitor flashes a signal button twice to get her comrades' attention. They grab Tiffany roughly and throw her into a dark room. Her arms are bound and gags are placed over her eyes and mouth.

Sean is brought into the same room Tiffany had been in. He's much more lucid than she had been when her interrogation started.

"Mr. Donely, we want the information you have on Frisco Jones."

"I don't know anything about Frisco. I've been trying to find out about him myself."

"Don't mess with us. We have someone we're pretty sure you wouldn't want to see hurt."

Sean tries to think back to what was happening before he was clocked upside the head and rendered unconscious.

"Where is she?" he asked viciously when the memory clicked into place.

"Mrs. Jones? She's a noisy one, that one. Trained well apparently. She's safe, believe me. We're taking good care of her - meaning she hasn't been hurt ... yet."

"You have Felicia?" he asked, not really convinced that's the case.

"You two apparently have short attention spans," one kidnapper said. "You were on the porch engaged in some kind of intense discussion when we grabbed you both."

Sean leans back in his uncomfortable chair. He's sure he knows who they actually did have in their possession. "If you hurt her, you better plan on killing me. Because if not, I will hunt you down and take care of you myself."

"We know your reputation, Donely," the other one said. "That's not your style."

"You have no idea who I am since I left the bureau, and I am telling you, you touch one hair on her head and you die."

"That's probably an insight you shouldn't have shared with us, showing weakness and all. Could be used against you."

"It will be used against YOU if anything happens to her, understand?" Sean said with purpose.

"He's not going to talk," the mastermind said, signaling the kidnappers again with two flashes followed by a long one and two shorter ones. One of the kidnappers smiles in anticipation.

"I'm sure you know what that one means," the kidnapper said, cracking his knuckles.

Sean nods knowingly. "Subjects who will not impart information get put out of commission," he said.

"That's right," the kidnapper said as he closes in on him.

"Remember what I said," he reiterated just before the duo tag-teamed the defenseless Sean.


	30. Chapter 30

Later that night, Tiffany's still in the darkened room when the door opens. She is still bound and gagged, but she can hear her captors unloading something on the floor of the room. Her senses come alive. "Sean," she whispers under her breath.

When the door closes, she shimmies over to where they were. "Sean! Sean!" She stretches down the floor to where he is, she rubs her blindfold against his chest so the material is loosened away from her eyes and she can finally see him. "Sean! Sean, baby, please. Talk to me! Say something, please."

Sean remains unconscious.

"Please, please, please," she willed. "Please be alive."

She gets an idea - to put her head on his chest to make sure he's still breathing. She does that hesitatingly, a little scared that her worst nightmare could come true. His chest rises and falls, lightly, but it does, below her head. "OK, OK, you're alive. What now? Not like I have smelling salts with me, and if I did, how could I reach them?"

She looks him over and is just overwhelmed by the situation. "Why did you do this to him?" she screams out. She whispers his name softly in his ear numerous times to try to awaken him. It doesn't work. "Sean, please. Please." She rests her head on his chest as she tries to think of another option.

Tiffany's been lying in the dark on Sean's chest for quite a few hours. He's still unconscious and she's getting more and more frustrated and scared about that in equal measure.

"I don't understand this. I don't understand any of this," she said as she gets to her feet and stumbles around the dark room, starting to lose it. "I don't get how you think I'm Felicia Jones. I mean, I know I'm blonde and I was on the steps of the brownstone she lives in. But come on, do some reconnaissance or something. Look at a photo. ... Not that Felicia knows any better than I do where her own husband is. ... That reminds me, why did I get so confused when they were talking about my husband. I mean I know who I'm married to, right?"

She stops, takes a breath and looks over at Sean. "He just doesn't happen to be the man I'm in love with."

In the control room, Colette is smiling pretty broadly. "This doesn't have anything to do with the reason we're actually here, but I think we just got some insight into Sean Donely."

"Guess he loves this broad too, whoever she is," one of the kidnappers said.

"Judging by how he threatened you both earlier, I'd say he does," Colette added.

Meanwhile Tiffany's still muttering to herself. "You know what really gets me is how worried I was about our safety if we were together. But we're not a couple now and we were kidnapped anyway and no one's happy. ... OK, never mind that, it doesn't matter. Sean, please just say something to me," she said, leaning over him again. "What would he do? What would he do? Probably give mouth-to-mouth, even if I didn't need it." She smiles faintly at the thought. "Tell me what to do, please."

She pulls back. "Or what not to do," she said to herself. "You idiot! You told them who you were, you told them Frisco's business, you told them Felicia's business, you told them Sean's business. He'd be furious with you right now ... if he was conscious. Come on, baby, wake up and yell at me please, please. I miss that. You're so gruff when you're angry, I really think you could scare any man, woman or child with your angry face."

"It worked on you," Colette laughed at one of the kidnappers from the control room.

"Well, what are we going to do with them? They can't help and we certainly can't just deposit them back on the brownstone steps," he said, ignoring her in the process.

"The usual way," Colette said knowingly.

"Sean! Wake up! Remember, you promised me if I ever needed you, you'd be there. You promised! Can you make this the one promise that you keep?" she asked desperately. She lays back down on the floor next to him and starts nuzzling him with her nose and kissing him along the neck. "Please, baby, I need you," she whispers to him as she moves over and gently tugs on his upper lip with her teeth, then softening her stance so she could kiss him fully on both lips. "Please, please, please," she pleaded.

Sean stirred. "Oh baby, that's it. Come back to me. I need you," she said. She kisses him again on the mouth, and this time, he responds, just in time for the kidnappers to bust back in the room and grab them both.

"I'm not leaving you, sweetheart," Sean said with as much resolve as he could muster. "I'm never leaving you."

"These two are too much," one of their captors said. "Don't you know when you are beaten?"

"You're gonna know when you are," Sean retorted.

Tiffany uncharacteristically says nothing, just keeps staring straight ahead at Sean and looking into his eyes for comfort. It's there. She could tell he's furious and even more than a little scared, but more than anything, he's trying to will both of them through this.

They're shuttled into a single-engine plane and flown a couple of hours southeast, according to Sean's unofficial calculations.

With the pilot in the cockpit, they spend the whole time trying to loosen the bindings on each other's wrists. There isn't much conversation but when his hand occasionally brushed across hers, it provides the most comforting sensation, pretty amazing considering the dire straits they're in.

Finally the hard work pays off as Sean works one of the ropes on Tiffany's hands free. She quickly untangles hers, then frees Sean. He jumps up and runs to the cockpit door. That's when they start to hear the plane engine sputtering.

"No time for knocking," Sean said, breaking down the door with one swift kick. No one's in the cockpit.

"This may sound like a stupid question right now, but where's the pilot?" Tiff asked.

"There are no stupid questions, sweetheart," he said, pointing out an escape hatch in the cockpit.

"I don't suppose he'll be coming back?" Tiff said, not really able to process what she's seeing at all out of massive fear.

"OK, maybe there's one stupid question," Sean said as delicately as he could.

"And we're running out of gas?" she asked.

He nods.

"Can we radio for help?"

"That's it, you're a genius, baby," Sean said. He picks up the radio receiver and flips the dial. "23-19-2 - SOS. Also 16-3 - SOS. Position unknown except to say about two hours southeast of 4-3."

He repeats the information once on another channel and leads Tiff back into the main area of the plane. "OK, I'm going to have to tell you something right now that you're not going to want to hear."

"Why do you have to do that?"

"Sweetheart, we're going to have to jump."

"Jump?" she asked as though it was the craziest word she ever heard in her life. "We can't land this plane in water."

"No," he said plainly.

"Why not?"

"It's not built that way. ... We don't have a lot of time. We have to go."

"We have to go?" she asked, not losing any of her incredulity. "Just take a couple parachutes and jump?"

"No," Sean said plainly. "We don't have any chutes."

"No chutes? No para-chutes? So this is it?" she asked fearfully.

"No way. I'm not giving up and I won't let you either. When we're low enough, we're going to jump."

"How low is low enough?"

"I'd rather not scare you."

"I think I'm plenty scared enough already."

"Listen to me, Tiffany. Your life is more precious to me than my own. I'm going to get you through this."

Tiffany looks into Sean's eyes and believes every word. He opens the plane hatch and goes back to the cockpit to gauge how much time they have left before the jump.

While he's doing that, she looks down at her rings. She takes a deep breath, then works the engagement and wedding bands off her ring finger. When Sean emerges from the cockpit, he sees her chuck them out the open door. She looks back at him and bites her lip to avoid saying everything in her heart.

"OK, we're jumping," she said. "What do I need to know?"

"You need to point your toes when you hit the water," he said. "The momentum's going to take you down and you have to let it do that at first. But then you'll need to propel yourself upward with everything you have."

She nods and kicks off her shoes.

"There's something else you have to know," Sean said, looking at her meaningfully.

"No," she said. "If we make it, then we were meant to be together. And if we don't, then we weren't."

She steps to the open door, trying to will herself to jump. She looks back at him and he looks so confident in her that it does help. "Oh hell ... I love you, Sean," she said and jumps before he could say anything in return. He hears her scream all the way down.

He looks skyward. "She's amazing, thank you," he said, squinting in the sunlight. He looks like he's winking at the heavens. And then he jumps.


	31. Chapter 31

Sean plunges into the water, doing exactly what he had instructed Tiffany to do - pulling mightily for the surface at the first opportunity. He breaks out of the water and looks as far as he can in every direction but doesn't see her. In the distance, he hears the plane crash and then the giant fireball that rises up as a result. He looks around in the water again, then starts swimming for shore as hard as he can.

When he reaches the beach, he looks down the stretch of sand as far as he can see and doesn't spot her. He starts running in the direction she had jumped.

He spots her about 20 minutes later, face down in the sand, which gives him the extra energy to sprint to her. He turns her over carefully with the same fear she had when she found him in the warehouse hours earlier.

He checks her pulse, and sighs with relief when there is one. He sits down, putting her head on his lap and gently opens her mouth and puts a finger down her throat to try to force her to cough up water. She does. He holds her firmly and as comfortingly as possible as she heaves the ocean out of her lungs. She falls back in his arms when she can't cough up any more.

"Are we alive?" she asked.

"We're alive."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm positive."

"It doesn't matter as long as I'm still with you."

"We had to make it, you didn't give me a chance to say 'I love you' back."

"I owed you that one," she said, forcing a weary smile.

"And I owe you this. I've never loved another woman the way I love you. Nowhere near close," he said, running his hand down the side of her face.

"I'm so sorry, Sean," she said, choking a little for air. "I was awful to you. I was awful to everyone, even myself."

"You weren't awful, you were doing what you thought you had to," he responded.

"I couldn't have been more wrong," she admitted.

"We don't have to talk about this right now."

Tiffany's faculties start to return to her. "We probably should find some safer ground in case they come looking for us to make sure we're dead."

"I think we're out of the line of fire ... for now," he smiled.

"I don't follow."

"They let us go."

"They let us go?" she squealed. The incredulous tone from the plane was back in her voice. "We just jumped out of a crashing airplane and you're saying they let us escape? Is this regular procedure in espionage circles?"

"They bound our hands with ropes. If they were cuffs, we couldn't have gotten out of them. Believe me, if they wanted us dead, we'd be dead," he explained. "We answered their questions, didn't quite give them the answers they wanted, but it's sort of a tip of the cap amongst thieves."

Tiffany can't believe what she's hearing. "And if we didn't survive the crash?"

"Well, they wouldn't be crying any tears over us. They just see it as giving us the means and it was up to us to make the most of that."

"Maybe that's what they did to Frisco and he didn't make it," she said.

They sit for a moment in silence and reflect on that possibility. She flashes back to the last moments on the plane. "What about the SOS calls?"

"I sent SOS calls to the WSB and Port Charles, so I'm hoping someone is already organizing a search party for us," he said. "It'll probably be a day or so before they can get to us."

"And in the meantime?" she asked.

"In the meantime, you and I can take care of some unfinished business," he said, leaning over and finally kissing her deeply.

Sean finds it extremely difficult to pull back from her, especially when he gazes into her eyes, which are an even more beautiful shade of blue than the ocean before them.

"I hate to be practical at a time like this, but we should find some shelter while it's still light enough to do so."

She nods disappointedly. He helps her to her feet, she's understandably a little wobbly from the afternoon's events. He puts his arm around her for support, which does make her feel better and they start to hobble away from the shore.

Within the hour they come to a plateau on the island with a lush waterfall that empties into a little pond next to it. Sean quickly clears a little camping area for them with some tall tree fronds to sit on and starts to gather materials for a fire.

"Shouldn't be too long now, honey," he said, kissing her softly on the lips before disappearing back into the nearby woods to get some timber.

Tiff nods groggily despite the fact that he is no longer around to see it and leans back on the fronds. She tries to keep her eyes open until he returns, but the exhaustion overwhelms her and she falls asleep.

The cawing of a tropical bird wakes Tiffany up. She tries to get her bearings and it slowly dawns on her that it's morning and she's lying in Sean's arms. And she's still wearing the camisole and skirt she had been dressed in the night before.

"No!" she screamed dramatically, waking Sean up.

"What's wrong, baby? he said in a sexy sleepy voice.

"What's wrong? What's wrong? Well, let's see. We were about to have the ultimate love scene and I FELL ASLEEP!"

"It's all right, you had a pretty full day," he chuckled. "Kidnapping, torture, jumping out of a crashing plane. Sweetheart, you were long past exhaustion. You needed some rest."

"Not my point. I could have rested AFTER," she said. "Instead of proving to the man who I tortured for months that I really love him more than anything on this earth, I'm SLEEPING?"

"There's still time for that. There's time for everything," he said. "We're not going to be rescued for some time. I'm sure we can make the most of it."

"I'm soooooo not in the mood now," she said, still upset with herself. She untangles herself from him and stalks off. Sean sighs, pulls himself up and goes after her.


	32. Chapter 32

Tiffany is stumbling around, more a result of her mind being overloaded than anything else. She flashes on Cheryl and worries about her sister needing her kidney right at that moment when she can't get to her. She thinks about Doug and the mess she created with him that she'll never be able to make right. She thinks about the night before her wedding and how she was so certain that that was it for her and Sean. And then about the plane crash and how she was sure that was it for them too.

She's starting to feel a little woozy, so she walks back in the direction of the waterfall. At the edge of the pond, she kneels down and splashes water on her face. It's refreshing, but doesn't seem to be quite good enough, so she pulls off her skirt and wades into the water. She walks over to the waterfall and stands just off to the side, so she's getting some of the spray across her hair and face.

Sean appears in the distance, he just stands there and watches the water cascade over her. After a couple minutes, something makes her look in his direction and they just stare at each other. She lets one last splash run over her and then starts to make her way over to where he is. He steps into the water and meets her halfway.

"Sean, I..." she started.

"You don't have to say anything," he said. "It isn't lost on me that you've been through some really traumatic things in the past day. Maybe it's not so hot that it's kind of second nature to me by now, but you're dealing with a lot."

He opens his arms to her and she goes into them and sighs deeply.

"You know how happy I was to just hold you last night?" he asked. "I was so tired but I couldn't even sleep. I just kept watching you, thinking about how brave you were jumping out of the plane. How you brought me out of unconsciousness. I watched you sleep and remembered how I had done the very same thing on the most incredible night of my life."

"How can you keep loving me when I'm so ridiculous?" she said.

"I prefer to think of you as spectacular," he replied. "Guess that's why I keep carrying a torch for you."

Tiffany smiles at that turn of phrase.

"Couldn't get you out of my mind if I wanted to," he said.

"I couldn't either," she admitted. "And I wanted to." She looks at him longingly. "Are you gonna kiss me or what?"

"Still trying to construct that perfect love scene, I see," he said.

"No, I just want to kiss you," she said and he moved in for the kiss, slipping his arms through hers and pulling her to him seamlessly. They locked lips and tasted each other slowly and softly to savor every moment.

When they break away, she tugs on him in the direction of the waterfall. He smiles slyly and lets her lead him there. She pulls him under the rushing water and they both let it run over them. They meet for another series of kisses and she starts grasping at his soaked shirt.

"Excuse me for a moment," he said and he wades in the direction of their makeshift campsite. He peels off his pants and shirt, putting them on the ground near the fire, and does a full dive back into the water which makes Tiffany laugh out loud. He quickly takes her back in his arms and looks so intently at her that she can't breathe.

He slowly backs her up against a big rock and starts delivering a torrent of kisses all over her that rival the cascading water. She leans against the rock to keep her balance because the sensation is making her light-headed. When he moves in again for more, her fingers trace the outline of his body, which entices him to move in even closer.

He leans in closer to her ear, nipping the lobe with his lips. "Ready for a nap?" he whispered.

"You just had to say that, didn't you?" she said, chuckling despite herself.

He cradles her in one arm and starts to do everything but nap.

After some serious lovemaking, they wade back to the camp site and snuggle up together by the dying embers of the fire. They're still kissing and touching each other like they haven't gotten enough.

"I never thought it would be like this again," she admitted.

"I didn't either," he said. He stretches over trying to reach his clothes.

"Oh, no, don't put your clothes back on yet," she said.

"I'm not," he replied, reaching past her for his pants. When he gets them, he slips a hand into the pocket and pulls out the little box. "I've kinda been carrying this around for a long time."

Tiffany couldn't have been more shocked when he opens the box and she sees the emerald and diamond ring within it. "You jumped out of the plane with this in your pocket?" she realized.

He nods. "I was holding on to it for dear life," he said. "And actually, I've had it for quite a while. That night ... I was going to ask you to marry me. I ... should have done it."

She thinks back to the memory of that night. "I don't know what I would have said. I'm not sure it would have changed my mind. I was so positive about marrying him," she said, biting her lip with shame. "I was so positive I was doing the right thing. I'd like to think I would have come to my senses, but I'm not sure that word was even in my vocabulary at the time."

"And of course, it might have helped if I had actually asked," Sean said. "So I'm asking now. Tiffany, you will marry me?"

She freezes up. "I can't," she finally managed to say.

"No? You're saying no," he said, stunned.

"It's a beautiful ring. Really, it's the most gorgeous ring I've seen in my life. But I can't just waltz back in the front door not wearing my wedding ring and wearing your engagement ring. I can't do that to him."

"So your answer isn't 'no' for good, it's 'no' for right now?" Sean asked.

"It has be be 'no' right now," she said. "I know that sounds hypocritical considering we were just as close as two people can get, but..."

"It's all right," Sean said, letting her off the hook. "There's a lot to deal with. I just want you to know that I'm going to keep this with me at all times and when you're ready, it's yours."

"I can't believe I'm hearing this from Sean Donely," she smiled.

"When I figure out what I want, I won't be denied. And I've never wanted anything or anyone more than you," he said.

Tears come to her eyes. "Can you just hold me for a little while?"

"It's my favorite thing to do," he said, putting the box back in his pocket and pulling her to him.

In Port Charles, Doug bursts into Robert's office.

"I want to know where your friend Donely is," Doug demanded.

"We think he's somewhere in the Caribbean," Robert said.

"And my wife is with him?"

"We don't know that for sure, but we think that's the case. Terry O'Conner said she saw them together yesterday on the brownstone steps..."

"Then why would they be in the Caribbean?" Doug interrupted.

"If you'll let me finish, there was an SOS given in WSB code to the agency and Port Charles," Robert continued. "I would have to think that would be Sean."

Doug mulled that over for a moment. "Is she all right?"

Robert took a deep breath. "A plane went down in the area. No sign of survivors, but they could have bailed out."

"So she's dead or she's with him," Doug said.

"One of those choices is decidedly better than the other," Robert said. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go check on the rescue operation. I can call you when I hear anything."

"I'll wait here," Doug said.

"That's fine," Robert said and exited the office.

Worst-case scenarios flood Doug's mind.


	33. Chapter 33

It's starting to get dark again and Tiffany has fallen asleep again in Sean's arms. He gently works his way out of her grasp and pulls on his pants, unconsciously checking for the ring like he's been doing for the past few months. He starts to rebuild the fire. Despite the fact that he's working as quietly as possible, the noises wake Tiffany up and she just watches him work wordlessly. She leans over and grabs his shirt and pulls it on. When he turns back to her, he's struck by a sense of deja vu. She catches the look on his face in the light of the fire.

"What is it?" she asked softly.

"Nothing," he said, retaking his place beside her.

"Come on, it's something," she said insistently.

"I had this dream a few days ago," he said, spooning around her and practically whispering in her ear. "You were wearing my shirt and nothing else, just like now."

"Ohhh, really," she said. "Enjoyed that, I hope."

"Not half as much as the real thing," he said, nibbling on her ear.

They lay there quietly wrapped up in each other, just hearing the waterfall faintly in the background. Another noise starts to intrude in the background, something that doesn't quite fit with the sounds of nature surrounding them. They both hear it at about the same time.

"Sean?" she asked questioningly.

"I think we're about to be rescued," he said as the helicopter noise grew louder.

They sank back into silence, knowing that their adventure is about to come to a swift end.

Robert blows back into his office, Doug jumps up from his seat.

"It looks like we may have located them," Robert said. "The helicopter radioed in that a fire was spotted burning an island not far from the crash site. The World Security Bureau has the coordinates and is dispatching a ship to the vicinity."

"Do they know if they're together?"

"No, the chopper couldn't get close enough with the trees and there was no place to land. But we should have word in a few hours. Still want to stay here?"

"I guess I'll go home. I'll leave you my number, please call the minute you hear something more," Doug said. He pulled a pen off the desk and wrote down the number for Robert.

"I'm sure Tiffany's fine, mate. Sean would have taken good care of her," Robert said.

That's what I'm afraid of, Doug thought as he nods and exits.

A couple hours later, Sean and Tiffany are safely aboard a WSB carrier and headed back to the States. Sean is immediately taken off for debriefing about the kidnapping and the plane crash while Tiffany is greeted cheerfully in the galley by about a dozen shipmates, who enjoy seeing the former movie actress in a man's shirt - not Sean's at this point - and a pair of jeans that she had cuffed up at the bottom like capris that show off her shapely calf muscles.

Two hours after that, Sean joins her back in her stateroom. She's stretched out on the bed when he enters the room and he looks her over as admiringly as he did when she was wearing just his shirt. He crosses to the bed, kneeling down to kiss and caress her calves and working his way up to her lips.

"A couple of crew members gave me this fine apparel," she said. "I understandably didn't have time to pack for this little trip."

"I approve," he said, running his hand along the shirt and fingering the buttons.

"Would you like to get some food? They have just about everything down in the galley," she said.

"I'd rather feast on you," he said hungrily.

"You have to be starving," she said.

"I'm ravenous," he said, looking her up and down and back again.

"Don't I have to be debriefed?" she asked.

"You certainly do," he said, again with other - but not entirely unrelated - ideas in mind.

"By the WSB," she continued.

"By former WSB probably would be sufficient," he said.

"Are you ever going to be serious?" she asked.

"Not while it's still just us, I'm not," he replied.

"Well, in that case, I suppose I'm looking forward to your interrogation technique ... and hoping and praying that it goes a lot smoother than my last inquisition."

Sean stops in his tracks for a moment, knowing she's still bothered by what they had been through, no matter what the eventual outcome had been. "You know, no one ever feels quite right about being put through the ringer the way we were."

"You seem to be fine," she said.

"Well, I'm mostly fine because we survived. But it was just as unsettling for me. And particularly so with you involved."

"I'm just glad they didn't get Felicia. She's been through enough."

"You know you're a helluva lot stronger than you give yourself credit for being," he said admiringly.

"Survival instinct, I guess," she said.

"I think it's more than that," he said. "Just another in the long list of things that draws me to you."

"There have always been so many things that pull me in your direction," Tiffany said.

"And then there have been the things that pushed you away."

"But somehow we keep getting right back here."

"I think that means something," Sean said.

"Something like we were meant for each other?"

"Something like that, yeah."

"I really hope so," she said.

"I know I'm convinced," he replied.

"I want to be with you so badly," she said. "Sometimes it seems like I want it too much. Like an addiction."

"I don't think it's that," he said. "It's like you once said a long time ago when I was just too stupid to listen. We're soulmates."

"But you were listening apparently."

"I heard it. It took a while for it to sink in. But it has."

With reality closing back in on them both, Tiffany's feeling unsettled. So she pulls him closer to her and Sean takes care of the rest.


	34. Chapter 34

Doug paces at the Port Charles Airport as he and Robert awaits the arrival of the light from Miami. Robert's watching with a semi-amused look on his face.

"Look, you should probably calm down a little," Robert finally said. "She's fine. Not even a scratch from what I hear."

"And the people who did this? Are they still out there?" Doug asked.

The smile disappears. "Let me explain something and maybe that will help you out when your wife's feet are back on the ground," Robert said. He rethinks that for a moment. "OK, I'm not sure we can wait that long. When the plane lands. ... What happened to Tiffany is just one of those things."

"One of what things?" Doug said incredulously.

"It was a misguided attempt to get information," Robert said.

"What's wrong with the telephone?" Doug asked.

"They just wanted to see what people in Port Charles knew about an agent who is a good friend of ours."

"Again I don't see what this had to do with Tiff," Doug said.

"You don't know the kind of people I know," Robert said.

"Unfortunately, I know one of the people you associate with rather well since he doesn't seem to know how to keep any semblance of respectful distance," Doug said. "And I hope you're not offended, but I'd rather not have my wife in that kind of company in the future." He stalks over to the window to watch the incoming planes.

"How could I possibly take offense to that?" Robert asked himself, dripping with sarcasm.

In the first-class section on the plane, Tiffany is still gripping the arm rests very tightly.

"Honey? We've already landed," Sean said with a chuckle. "You can let go now."

Tiff's distracted, but she realizes he's talking to her. "What?" She looks down at her hands and sees how tense she is. "Oh, yeah."

Sean leans over to run his hand along her jaw, she flinches as soon as he makes contact. "You all right?" he asked with concern.

"Probably just post-traumatic stress," she said.

"You have been though a lot. Maybe you can take a few days off from the station," he said.

"I've just been away for a couple of days without any warning," she said. "I should probably stick around for a while."

"Do you want me to..." he started to ask.

"No," she said.

"I didn't finish."

"I have a pretty good idea where you were going with that."

"Oh yeah? How's this - do you want me to have them gas up this plane and take us back to the island?"

"This is a commercial plane, Sean."

"I'll still do it, if you want me to."

"We'd have to jump again," she said, downplaying it. "No, thanks."

"So you don't want me to go with you to talk to him," he said, going back to the point while there was time to do so.

"No ... thanks," she said tightly.

"We didn't spend a lot of time on the island talking about reality," he said.

"We didn't spend a lot of time on the island talking," she added.

"I should have sung the Beach Boys' 'Don't Worry Baby' to you while you were still in my arms," he said.

"I like it when you sing to me," she said. "Kind of whisper singing. Always makes me feel good."

"I can do it now if you want," he said.

Tiffany shakes her head. "I think the moment's passed." She pauses. "I have no idea how to tell him."

"Don't worry baby, everything will turn out all right," Sean said, speaking the lyrics to the song anyway.

The seat belt light goes off as the plane arrives at the gate. Tiffany rubs the ring finger on her left hand anxiously.

In the lobby, Doug stands as close to the gate as he's allowed to get as the deboarding process begins. He brightens when he sees his wife, she's pasted a smile on her face.

"Hi darling," Doug said, quickly taking her in his arms. "Are you all right?"

The shaken Tiffany nods and tries to keep the front up.

"I'm so glad you're OK," Doug said. "I was going crazy not knowing what happened to you."

"It was crazy," Tiffany said.

Sean lowers his head and starts to walk past them. Doug stops him. "Donely. Thanks for taking care of her," he said.

"I think the opposite is true," Sean said. "She saved me."

Tiffany bites her lip. "Can we go?"

"Good to see you, Tiff," Robert said as Doug walked his wife by him.

"You too," she said, forcing a smile.

Robert waits until they've left before turning back to Sean. "Everything's changed, I take it," he said.

"I'm not at liberty to say. Need-to-know basis, you understand."

"Oh, right," Robert said. "Guess I shouldn't have noticed she wasn't wearing her rings. Unless of course your altruistic kidnappers had a thing for expensive jewelry."

"That's the thing with you, old buddy. I never have to tell you anything because you already know."

Robert slaps Sean on his back and they exit.

Doug opens the door of the brownstone and ushers Tiffany inside.

"Can I get you anything?" he asked.

She shakes her head.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?"

"Want to tell you? Not really. Have to tell you, yes."

Doug turns grim. "I was worried about this."

"I know you were," Tiffany said. She can't bring herself to start.

"Are you actually going to say it?"

"I don't know how to," she said, fighting back tears.

"Just say it," he said, getting angry. "I'll start - Doug, Sean and I..."

"Doug, Sean and I..." she echoed.

"This is ridiculous, you can do it, but you can't say it?"

"I'm not sure how to put it. There's something between me and him that doesn't go away. And I was forced to face that when we were almost killed."

"So you slept with him."

"It's really not about that," she tried to explain.

"But you did."

"Doug, saying I'm sorry is never ever ever going to be enough, but I'm sorry."

"You're right, saying you're sorry isn't enough. We just got married. Haven't even been on our honeymoon, and you've already broken your vows."

"I could try to explain it, you're not going to understand."

"Why? Because I couldn't understand a love as big as the one you have with him."

"No. It's not like that. I wish I could explain what it's like when you think you're going to die in the next minute or so. It forces you to be honest with yourself. You don't feel fear. Everything becomes very apparent. And I couldn't in good conscience be your wife."

"Because you love another man."

"I love you too..."

"Women who love their husbands don't go off with another man."

"Go off? I did not go off. I was kidnapped. I jumped out of a crashing plane. It wasn't a vacation."

"You knew this was going to happen. You send out signals to him that keep him coming around you."

"You're wrong. I had every intention of spending the rest of my life with you. I was faithful to you from the day we got married until that plane went down."

Doug stops in his tracks. "Wait a minute, the DAY we got married? What about before that?"


	35. Chapter 35

Tiffany feels like she's standing in quicksand and she's sunk down so far that it's covering everything up to her neck. She shakes her head, thinking it couldn't get much worse to be honest - both with herself and with Doug.

"I guess it doesn't matter much to say it now," she said. "The night before we got married, I was with him. I can't explain it. I can't justify it."

"You just had to have him one more time?" Doug asked sarcastically.

"It wasn't like that," she said. "We were saying goodbye."

"Why even marry me at all?" he replied, feeling more incensed by the moment.

"Because I really did think you were the one I was supposed to marry. I always thought that I'd marry someone like you, only in my head that man was never as great as you."

"Oh yeah, I can see the love coming off of you in waves," he said, not lightening up on her at all.

"You were everything I didn't know I needed, loving me unconditionally," she said, really fighting to not let him see her cry. "Respecting my opinion. I never even knew I wanted that until you gave it to me."

"This all sounds rosy," he said. "When do we get to the part of the story when you let the other man put his hands all over you?"

"I'm trying to say it. There's a difference between thinking I knew what I need and what I actually need. But I need you to know that I do care about you as much as I do anyone, including Sean."

"I can tell by the way you threw our marriage out the window before the ink was even dry on the license," he said. "I guess I should thank you for your time."

"I swear I mean it."

"And I should believe you because you've proven to be so trustworthy."

Tiffany hangs her head. "I'll come back for my things when you're at work." She starts for the door.

"You're going to him now," he said.

She stops and turns back to look at him. "This isn't about Sean. It never was." She gathers herself together enough to get out the door before she finally starts crying.

Tiffany enters her hotel room, her eyes brimming with tears. She collapses on the couch and sobs until she's heaving.

Sean's increasingly impatient at his penthouse. He picks up the phone to make sure it's working and slams it down when he hears the dialtone. Then picks it up again to make sure he didn't break it and puts it on the cradle more lightly. He crosses to the bar, pours himself a Scotch and takes a deep swig.

The phone rings, Sean almost jumps out of his skin to answer it.

"Tiffany? ... Oh, sorry. ... Yes, I remember you, Mr. Blackburn. ... Commissioner Scorpio asked you to call? Oh, well, yes, he's a busy man. ... He said there was someone I'd want to see. Not too cryptic. ... I'll be right there."

Sean grabs his coat and heads for the door. He goes down the elevator and out the lobby to the garage where Doug, who had been staking out the place to see when Tiffany would show up, spots him. He follows him.

Tiffany's not doing any better when Sean knocks on the door a half-hour or so later. She hesitatingly goes to open it. Her red eyes and haunted expression tell him everything she needs to know and he pulls her into his arms.

"Oh baby," he said gently. "I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry about, this is all on me," she said.

"I don't agree," he said.

"I don't either," came Doug's voice behind him.

"What are you doing here?" Sean asked.

"What are you doing here?" Doug echoed, sounding even more irritated.

"What are both of you doing here?" Tiff followed.

"I wanted to make sure you were OK," Sean said with concern.

"I wanted to do this," Doug said, sucker-punching Sean in the process.

Sean falls to the ground to Tiffany's horror and Doug's anger at her horror, but he doesn't stay down long. Sean gets back to his feet and clenches his own fist.

"Sean, please don't," Tiffany said, pleadingly.

"The guy cheap-shotted me," Sean said, rubbing his chin.

"Wanna talk about cheap shots, I can talk about cheap shots with you," Doug said. "How about sleeping with another man's fiance the night before the wedding? How about after the wedding too for good measure?"

"Stop it, someone's going to call the police," Tiffany said, pulling them both inside and closing the door. "Do you want ice for that?"

"Maybe you could just kiss it and make it better," Doug sneered.

"Doug, stop it," she said, starting to want to pop him herself. "I think you should go."

Both of them look at her to figure out which one she's talking to.

"I get it, you want to be alone. Well, have at it. Do you want to file for divorce or shall I?"

Tiffany remains silent.

"We sure as hell can't get an annulment, all the nights we spent in bed together," he continued.

Sean is festering inside, Tiffany looks away with shame.

"Tell me, darling," he said sarcastically. "Were you thinking of him every time?"

She doesn't say a word.

"I'll call my lawyer in the morning."

"You don't have to," Tiffany said. "I'll go to the Dominican Republic and take care of it myself. You won't have to do anything."

"Right. You gotta be free as soon as possible, so you can marry him," Doug said angrily.

"No," she said.

Sean's shocked, his hand closes reflexively on the box still in his pocket.

Doug looks at them both and stalks out of the room, slamming the door.

"No?" Sean asked.

"I think I need some time to myself," she said. "To figure out why all this happened."

"It happened because we love each other," he said.

"If I was sure of that, I never would have married him," she admitted.

"You can't beat yourself up about this, Tiffany," he said.

"Why do you want to get married anyway?" she asked. "Isn't it enough that we found our way back to each other?"

"I want to marry you," he said.

"Why?" she asked. "It's not like we need to rush into anything."

"I feel like we wasted so much time already," he said.

"Can't we just stay right here in each other's arms?" she asked.

"If you were in my arms right now, maybe I'd change my mind. But you're not."

"We could go back to the island ... back to the waterfall ... maybe finally make love on the beach," she said.

"So you really don't want to marry me?"

"Come on, how long did my marriage last? Thirteen minutes? The time it took for you to get to me in the receiving line," she said. "Seeing you is all it ever takes for me."

"I know you're feeling a lot of guilt right now, honey," he said. "It doesn't mean we don't belong together."

"Maybe you don't want it either," she said. "I mean, it was all so melodramatic. We were apart and fighting what we felt made it stronger. Well, maybe it won't be that way if it's so easy."

"I don't believe that."

"I just don't think my decision making is the best right now," she said. "I still can't believe that I let this happen. I went with the safe bet instead of trusting my heart when it mattered most. When did I become a person who makes decisions out of fear? That's not the woman you fell in love with.

"Let me go with you to the Dominican Republic," he said.

"You can't go," she said. "I don't want you there. This isn't about you."

"I know that," Sean said. "I just want to be there for you."

"Well, I don't want you to. I don't want you to pick up the pieces for me. It's not a happy time, I don't want it to be a vacation. I made a mistake. A really glaring error in my own judgment. And I need time to deal with that - alone. You can't protect me from this, you can't shield me."

"I'd do anything for you," he said.

"Then you need to let me go through this on my own," she said.

Sean realizes that that is what he's going to have to do. He takes her hand the way he did the way of the wedding. She nods and lets it slip out of her hands. She watches him walk out the door and crumples onto the couch


	36. Chapter 36

In the Dominican Republic, Tiffany is at a rundown office, filling out paperwork. The past few months are rolling around in her head, everything from when she met Doug on the way home from New York to when she and Sean had to bail out of the crashing plane.

Her tears fall on the paper as she's filling it out. She puts "irreconcilable differences" under reason for wanting the divorce. She sniffs and subsconsciously sneers at herself while doing so. She signs the bottom and gets on the empty line.

"Next," the disinterested employee at the counter said.

Tiffany slowly walks up and hands him her paperwork. He peruses the document, typing the information into an outdated computer.

"Didn't take too long to lose that lovin' feeling?" he chided as he typed in the wedding date.

"We weren't right for each other," Tiff said.

"That tends to become apparent very quickly when the glow wears off," he said.

Tiffany looks at the ground, still feeling a tremendous amount of guilt over it all.

Five minutes later, the man handed her a receipt. "Come back tomorrow, we'll have it certified and it'll all be over ... except the division of property. Then again, you probably weren't together long enough to get too much of that."

"You're a real people person, aren't you?" she said.

"If you want someone to hold your hand, there are any number of churches on the island," he said. "Next?"

Tiffany looks behind her and sees there's no one in line. She raises her eyebrow at the man. He shrugs and leaves the counter. She sighs and walks out the rickety door.

She stumbles out onto the dirt road feeling about as low as she ever has. She looks both ways, doesn't see much in either direction. She decides to go to the right. She takes off her heels and starts walking down the path.

"It's really incredible. Fill out a piece of paper and you're practically divorced. Like it never happened. Except that it did. ... Was supposed to be for life. I swore I thought that." She looks upward. "You know I thought that, right?

She keeps walking and happens upon a bunch of kids playing baseball in a sandlot. She splays her skirt and sits down on the ground to watch. The boys look so innocent, running around in bare feet, screaming, yelling and having fun. She flashes back to life in Tennessee, when her biggest problem was having Cheryl try to tag along when she was hanging out with her friends.

After an hour or so, Tiffany pulls herself to her feet and continues down the road. She comes to a small chapel. It looks worn down but very quaint. She puts her shoes back on and steps inside. She walks down the aisle and sits down in one of the pews near the back. She puts her head in her hands.

"Senora?" a warm voice echoed from behind her. Tiffany lifts her head and sees a man of the cloth walking toward her. "You all right?"

"Yes," she said, shaking her head no at the same time.

The priest slides into the pew in front of her. "You came here for a divorce?"

"How did you know?" she asked.

"We don't see a lot of tall blondes on this island ... unless they're here for a quickie divorce," he said.

She nods her head and looks back down at her feet.

"Want to talk about it? ... Sorry, occupational hazard," he laughed.

"I'm not sure what to even say. Is this a confession?" she asked.

"Doesn't have to be official if you don't want it to," he replied. "But I do think it would lighten your burden at the very least. It's amazing how talking it out can do that."

"I'm not sure I'll come off looking very good in the end ... or the beginning," she said. "I was married less than two months ago. The more I think about it, the more I'm sure I got married out of fear. ... Not that I was going to be physically hurt. See, there's this other man..."

She looks up at the priest, he's just listening intently and not showing any signs of judgment. "And that man's the one I wanted, the one I wanted from the moment I laid eyes on him. But he's ... difficult. A loner. The kind of man every woman wants to change. She wants to be the one who makes him want a commitment.

"To make a long story short, while I was waiting for this big miracle to happen, along came another man - the type I always thought I would marry someday, only better because he treated me with so much respect that it made my head spin. And I said I'd marry him."

"Because the other man hadn't come around?" the priest asked.

"Actually he did. And that must have scared me twice as much because my new fear was not being loved, but losing what I had. I went with the safe bet," she said with regret.

"And it was over before it started," he said.

She hangs her head. "Yes. It's got me questioning myself on every level. I used to be a really strong-willed person. Then I married a good man just to ensure I wouldn't be left alone, accidentally - or worse - on purpose, by the other. How can I trust anything I'm thinking about anyone at this point?"

She looks at him for the answers, and he's discerning what the parties in question have seen in her in the first place.

"How can anyone be sure what they think they want is what they actually want?" she continued. "I was so convinced I was doing what I needed to - for me."

"Sounds like a crisis of faith," he said. "So what happened to change everything?

"Let's just say there was a life-or-death situation," she said.

"Oh. Well, I can tell you from years of experience that people are able to really cut right to the heart of it all when they're about to die," he said. "You can be pretty sure that what you were thinking in those moments is what's at the core of your soul. Without fear or any other impediment."

Tiffany takes that in and nods.

"The rest is not going to be better overnight, there's no miracle cure for that and if you can't forgive yourself, you can't expect anyone else to either. But I think you now know for absolute certainty what's truly in your heart. I wish everyone was able to have that kind of clarity."

"I just don't wish them to get it the way I did," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Feel better now?" he asked.

"Actually I do. Thank you so much," she said, grasping his hand in appreciation.

"De nada," he replied and walked to the front of the church.

Tiffany steps out of the church, slips off her shoes and starts back down the road the way she had come. She takes a deep breath and lets the warm breeze blow through her air as she strides down the path.


	37. Chapter 37

A couple of days later, Tiffany's back in Port Charles. She goes right to Sean's penthouse from the airport. She knocks on the door. He opens it and they stand there transfixed by each other.

Finally Tiff cracks a slight smile. She steps forward and pulls him into a kiss, gently sucking his top lip and then his bottom lip. He wraps his arms around her like he's never going to let go. He ushers her inside while they're still holding on to each other and when the door's closed, he envelops her in another kiss.

"I need to ask you something," she said when they finally pull away.

"Anything," he said.

"Will you marry me?" she asked.

He breaks into a broad grin. "Here's your answer," he said, laying another kiss on her that makes her weak in the knees.

"I guess I should have gotten you a ring," she teased.

"I'll settle for finally putting this one on your finger," he said, pulling the now-worn box out of his pocket. He pops open the top and deftly pulls it out. When he slips it on her finger and kisses her hand, she's overwhelmed.

"I was going crazy without you," he said after a minute.

"Now you can go crazy with me," she said.

They sit down on the couch and continue to snuggle.

"You know there's something we probably need to talk about," she said.

"I will talk to you about anything and everything," he said.

"Well ... do you want kids?" she asked tentatively. "Probably something I should have asked before the proposal. But I looked in your eyes and couldn't help myself."

"I can't say I had given it much thought," he said. "But then ... that morning, when you were talking about it ... let's just say the idea of having little Tiffanys running around kind of appealed to me."

"And little Seans?"

"Not as much."

"I'd love to have little Seans," she said.

"How about both then?" he asked.

"Isn't this just crazy? I mean, how did we get here? Remember when we first met? We were so anti-settling down and having a family."

"And now it's the only thing I really want. I'm not alone anymore."

"I'm not alone either," she said and they are drawn back in by some magnetic force for more kisses. "I know I'm supposed to be with you."

"I almost followed you to the Dominican Republic," he admitted.

"It would have been a bad idea, I really had to sort some things out," she said. "I still feel really awful about Doug ... and everything."

"I don't want a damper on your return, but there is something I've been wanting to say about everything that happened. After that, I won't ever bring it up again."

"OK," she said warily.

"I know you blame yourself, but there is more than enough to go around. He knew how we felt. He'll might deny it until his dying day, but he knew that there was something between us that wasn't going to go away. And I have to carry around my fair share. I never should have let you marry him."

"Everyone thought they were doing the right thing for the right reason. It's a little scary how we all got it wrong. But I'm determined to get on with my life and that life is with you."

"I'm glad you figured that out," he replied.

"I had some help," she said. "In fact, there's a church there. I'd like to make a donation. It's a beautiful little place and the priest there really knows his stuff."

"Done."

"No, I wasn't saying, you needed to. I just meant I wanted to."

"Anyone who sent you back to me the way he did gets my full support."

"Then you won't be making any donations to the court, I assure you," she said, rolling her eyes, while thinking about the employee she ran into at legal office. "Anyway, I have to go to the station, they probably think of me as deadbeat boss right now."

"I'm glad you came here first," Sean said.

"Me too," she responded.

They kiss again and again and she finally gets up to leave. "By the way, Sean ... I love you."

"I love you," he said, stealing another kiss before she leaves.

At the office, Tiffany's looking unhappily at the stack of paperwork on her desk when her assistant announces Doug.

"Send him in, thank you, Mary," she said.

She takes a deep breath before hearing the knock at the door. She opens it for Doug and shows him in.

"Hello," she said plainly.

"Hi," he said grimly.

"How have you been?"

"Not great. So, is it done?"

She bites her lip. "It is. And I don't think you'll ever know how sorry I am about this. But what I do know is that you're going to find the right person."

"Like you did?" he asked.

"Doug, there's a woman out there who is going to be over the moon when you enter her life. She's going to be everything you wanted me to be for you."

He sees the ring on her finger. "I thought you weren't going to marry him."

"I am," she said. "I belong with him."

He looks down with regret. She pulls a document out of her purse. "Here's the paperwork. They asked me to ask you to sign it and then I'm supposed to file it locally."

"So it's not final?"

"It is. But they prefer to have both signatures on record."

Doug takes a pen out of his pocket and signs it. Tiffany tears off one of the copies and hands it back to him.

"I'll be over tomorrow to gather my things if that's all right," she said with a little difficulty.

He nods and heads for the door.

"I am sorry it worked out this way," she said.

"So am I," he said, walking out and closing the door behind him.

She sinks back into her chair, takes another deep breath and exhales with relief.


	38. Chapter 38

Outside events kept Sean and Tiffany from tying the knot sooner, between the investigation into Frisco's death and Anna's arrest for the shooting of Olivia. During that time, they drew even closer and both became even more sure that they belonged together for the rest of their lives.

But it wasn't until December that they were able to make it official. With such little time to plan the event, Sean came up with the idea of having the wedding on the island where they were brought back together.

Tiffany looks pensive on the airplane as they head for Miami to get their marriage license and then board a chartered ship that will take them back to the island.

"Want to tell me what's on that eternally perplexing but totally irresistible mind of yours, beautiful?" Sean asked.

"I was thinking about the other wedding," she admitted.

Sean's perplexed and a little concerned. "OK, anything specific?"

"There's something that very few people know about me. Doug got the marriage license and Tiffany Hill is my legal name, but it's not my real name," she said. "Doug didn't know that. I never told him. And I kind of think that, if we're going to get it right, I should take my vows with the name I was born with."

"Wow, I'm really surprised. OK, so what's your real name?"

"Well, uh ... uh ... uh," she said, trying to will herself to reveal the truth.

"I'm sensing some hesitancy here," he teased.

"You're going to laugh, please don't laugh," she said.

"I won't laugh, I promise," he said.

She fiddles with her rings, looks down and braces herself as she tells him. "My name's Elsie Mae Crumholtz."

He laughs. And not just laughs, he cackles on and on until he starts to get short of breath. The other passengers on the plane eye them strangely.

"I shoulda known when you promised," she said, getting more upset the longer the laughing goes on.

"Elsie Mae ... Elsie Mae Crumholtz, who would have ever believed this?"

"I hope you're getting this out of your system," she said.

"I can see why you changed it, How in the world did you get that moniker?"

"It'll just make it worse if I tell you."

"Worse? I can't see how."

"Our prized dairy cow was named Elsie Mae."

"Oh good lord," he said and he's off on another laughing tear.

Tiffany unbuckles her seatbelt and makes a move to get up.

"No, no, no," he said. "I'm sorry, I'll stop. I promise."

She raises her eyebrow at the last part.

"Sorry, I swear. No more laughing," Sean said. "I didn't mean it, it was just a gut reaction."

"I'm going to punch you in the gut if you don't stop it," Tiffany said.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Please forgive me."

"I'm certainly glad I told you now and not when we were in the middle of the ceremony," she said.

"Will you still marry me?" he asked.

"I'll think about it," she said.

"I'll get us some more champagne while you think, Elsie Mae," he said with a twinkle in his eye.

"That can only help," she said as Sean called for the flight attendant.

By the time they got to the island, all is forgiven. Tiffany excuses herself so she could change into her wedding dress on the boat. Sean looks very dapper dressed as he disembarks in a white gauze shirt and white pants. He kicks his shoes off and digs his toes into the sand.

When Tiffany emerges from the bathroom, she's dressed in a clingy, satin off-white dress that flows down to her bare feet. Her hair is all soft curls that cascade down to the dress. When Sean gets a glimpse of her, he catches his breath for a totally different reason than he had earlier. She's helped off the ship by the captain, and he presents her to Sean.

"You are exquisite," he said.

"Thank you," she said. "You look pretty devastating yourself."

"Shall we walk?" he asked.

"Don't we have to get this underway so the ship's captain can leave?"

"Actually, no," he said with a knowing smile, taking her hand in his and starting to stroll down the beach.

They get about a half-mile away when the ship leaves the island.

"Sean? Don't we need someone to marry us? Don't we need witnesses?" A realization dawns over her. "Ohhhhh. You don't want to get married after all."

"That's not it at all," he said. "I mean, if I never had even the vaguest thought of ever getting married that would have all changed the minute you stepped off the gangplank."

"Then what..." she started to ask when she saw a group of their friends coming toward them from the island, led by a running Robin.

"We surprised her! We surprised her!" yelled a gleeful Robin. "We surprised you, right?"

"I'm totally flabbergasted," Tiffany said.

"That's good, isn't it?" a wary Robin asked.

"Yes, honey, that's very good," a self-satisfied Sean said.

"Hello, luv, you look beautiful," Robert said, kissing her on the cheek.

"I can't believe you all came out here for this," Tiffany said, tears of happiness welling up.

"We kind of thought we owed you that," Anna replied. "I mean, I know I do. You kept postponing the wedding and I think we owed you the most perfect one we could deliver. And come on, who would want to get married in the living room of the Quartermaine mansion?"

"It was either that or the firehouse," Sean admitted.

"OK, so who's going to marry us? The commissioner of police?" Tiffany asked.

"Nope. One last surprise. And he's right behind you," Sean said.

Tiffany turns around slowly and is thrilled to see the priest who had talked to her in the Dominican Republic. "I don't believe this," she said.

"I'm glad to see everything worked out for you," he said. "Thank you so much for your kind donation, we're going to be able to do a lot for so many people."

"Plus now this one," Sean said, pulling a check from his pants pocket and giving it to the priest, whose eyes bug out when he looks at it.

"That good?" Anna asked. "Hmmmmm. I better go over the books at the agency."

"That's for taking such special care of my lady, and for agreeing to come here for the most important day of our lives," Sean said.

"It's my pleasure," he replied. "The sun's about to set, should we start now?"

"I know I don't want to wait another second," Sean said.

Tiffany's unusually silent, overwhelmed by the moment.

"We are gathered together here in the sight of this company to join this man and this woman together in holy matrimony..."


	39. Chapter 39

The priest is conducting Sean and Tiffany's wedding ceremony as the sun starts to set on the tropical island.

"I'm honored to be here today to join these two in the bonds of holy matrimony. I met the bride a few months ago. And although she might look on that day as one of the low points in her life, I was really struck by her strength of spirit ... and her love for this man."

Although Tiffany reacts to the heartfelt words, she hasn't taken her eyes off Sean and vice versa.

"While I've just met Sean, I've quickly gotten to see that the same is true for him. The way he gazes at his future wife when she's not looking, I know he loves her and will always try to protect her. It makes me feel truly blessed to be marrying them. This is a truly special couple."

Sean winks at Tiffany.

"If there is anybody here who can show just cause while they should not be joined in the bond of marriage, speak now or forever hold your peace."

All that can be heard is the lapping of the waves on the beach.

"Sean, repeat after me. ... I, Sean Donely, take you take Elsie Mae Crumholtz to be my wife."

"I, Sean Donely, take you Elsie Mae Crumholtz to be my lawfully wedded wife," he started, continuing on before he had to be given the lines. "To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or better, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do us part."

Snickers are arising from the likes of Robert and Duke behind them. Tiffany's smile fades.

"Elsie Mae, please repeat after me," the priest said.

More snickers, even Robin and her sister are giggling now.

"I, Elsie Mae Crumholtz, take you Sean Donely..." the priest started.

The laughter's really getting to Tiff. Sean pulls her hips to him and takes her in his arms so there's nothing else she can do but look into his eyes. He gently nudges her chin up. "Look at me," he said softly. "Look ... at ... me."

Tiffany does as instructed and sees nothing but love in his eyes. "I, Elsie Mae Crumholtz, take you Sean Donely to be my lawfully wedded husband," she said, starting to get strength as she went along. "To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or better, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do us part."

Now Sean lets himself smile. She finally exhales.

"The rings?" the priest said.

Robert pats the pocket of his jacket. He doesn't find it the first place he looks. He checks out all the pockets and starts to panic.

"Daddy," Robin cried. "You put it in the inside pocket."

Robert looks there and finds it. He lets out a sigh of relief and hands it over to Sean. "Thanks, sweetiepie," he said to Robin.

"Sean, repeat after me," the priest said. "With this ring, I thee wed."

"With this ring, I thee wed," Sean repeated dutifully and gently placed the ring on her finger outside of the engagement ring.

Cheryl hands Tiffany the ring with much less fanfare.

"With this ring, I thee wed," Tiffany said, having trouble pushing the ring past his knuckle. "Well, at least you'll have trouble trying to get it off," she wisecracked.

"I won't be taking it off," he said, making her dizzy the way he was staring intently into her eyes.

"By the authority vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife," the priest said. "You may kiss your bride."

"Thank you," Sean said and he pulls her to him for a deep, sensual kiss. They start swaying back and forth together as the assembled friends and family cheer and the sun hits the water behind them.

"It is with great joy that I present Mr. and Mrs. Sean Donely," the priest said as they continued to kiss.

"Mom, are they going to stop any time soon?" Robin asked a couple minutes later.

"I'm thinking no, sweetheart," Anna said with a smile.

Terry, who fortuitously brought an acoustic guitar player as her date, starts singing "Tupelo Honey" and Sean and Tiffany dance and kiss. The rest of the bridal party joins in, although Cheryl and Robert have an awkward pause before doing so.

"What about me?" Robin said.

"You can dance with us," Cheryl said to break the tension. She and Robin stand with space between them and Robert and start to dance.

When the song ends, Sean does break eye contact with his wife. For a second. "We appreciate you all coming out here. Father, you did a wonderful job. Now at the risk of sounding rude, there's a boat waiting in the alcove to take you back to the mainland."

"Sean?" Tiffany shrieked, not really upset that he said that but pretending to be for appearance's sake.

"Well it is Christmas, and I'm sure everyone has things to take care of. We appreciate you being here more than we can ever express..." Sean said.

"... now get lost," Robert joked.

Now it's Tiffany who has to suppress her laughter.

"I really should be getting back," the priest said graciously.

Tiffany lets go of Sean's hand long enough to take his. "Thank you so much for coming here to marry us, it means everything to me and us."

"It was my pleasure. This was one of the most beautiful weddings I've ever presided over," he said.

"Up until the point we were drop-kicked out of here," Robert quipped.

"Come on, Daddy, they want to be alone," Robin said, tugging on his arm.

Anna kisses Sean. "Congratulations, this could be the best Christmas present I ever heard of," she said.

"I couldn't agree more," Sean said, taking hold of Tiffany again. She and Duke kiss goodbye.

"Guess I can start calling you Elsie Mae again," Cheryl said.

"Uh, no, I don't think so," Tiffany said.

"I'll see you soon," Cheryl responded, knowing in her heart that that wouldn't be the case.

"Thanks for standing up for me," Tiff said.

"I love you," her sister said with tears in her eyes.

"I love you too," Tiffany said back and they embraced. Sean and Cheryl also embraced and she started down the beach with the others. They began walking down the shore in the other direction, fingers intertwined.


	40. Chapter 40

Tiffany's feeling on top of the world, better than she ever remembers having ever felt. She lets the breeze off the water blow through her hair. Sean falls in love with her all over again in that moment, watching a smile slowly cross her face. She turns to her husband, her eyes start twinkling.

"Ohhhh, I'm familiar with THAT look," he said, matching her gaze with his own smoldering look of fierce desire.

"I can't believe we're married," she said with disbelief.

"Why not? I'm going to love you until the day I kick off," he said.

"Same here," she replied.

"So what's so surprising?"

"I have everything I ever wanted. Elsie Mae Crumholtz from Tennessee got the happy ending. The kind that only happens in movies, and not even the ones I used to act in," she said. "Sometimes I find it so hard to believe there actually is someone in the world just for me. Someone who knows me and still loves me."

"I do and I do," he said. He takes her in his arms and wraps a finger around one of the loose curls in her hair. "I think I'm the lucky one, though," he said.

"Uh uh, I am," she said.

"No, I am," he said.

"No!"

"We're having our first fight as husband and wife and it's about how wonderful the other one is?"

She chuckles. "Probably a better thing to fight about than most topics of discussion. But, uh, isn't there something we're supposed to do BEFORE such discord sets in?"

She starts unbuttoning his shirt. "Have I mentioned how utterly irresistible you look today, Mr. Donely?

"Undressing me with your eyes during the ceremony was a dead giveaway, Mrs. Donely."

"I'll just do it with my hands then now," she said.

"Uh, if you look out on the horizon you might see that the boat is not really out of sight yet," Sean said.

"And?"

"And ... and ... I wouldn't want them training their high-powered binoculars this way."

Tiffany chuckles. "Could it be? Sean Donely is shy? I can help you get over that," she said. She guides his hand to her back and helps him pull down her zipper.

On the boat, the first mate actually does have his binoculars trained on them. But Sean's standing in the way of the view he's ultimately trying to get. "Would you move already?"

Robert overhears him and snatches the binoculars away. "Excuse me, ever hear of invasion of privacy?"

"If they didn't want an audience, they should have checked into the Holiday Inn," the crew member muttered before walking away in disgust.

"He's got a point there," Robert said. He looks around to make sure no one's watching and then peers through the binoculars himself. He too isn't getting much of a view, but he can tell there's a seduction going on. "Way to be, Donely. Holiday Inns are for sissies."

On the beach, things are actually progressing much differently. Tiffany unfastens her husband's pants and drops them to the shore. She lets her gown go as well and jumps into the waves. (This doesn't help Robert's cause in the least.)

Sean watches his beautiful and naked wife cavorting in the water. "Marriage is a compromise," he laughed to himself, then dives in after her.

Hours later, the sky is a deep blue and they're lying in each other's arms on the beach.

"I love it here," Tiffany said.

"That's good, because it's my wedding present to you," Sean said.

"I don't understand," she said, confused.

"I bought it for you," he said. "The island ... is yours."

Her mouth drops open. "This makes my present look a little shabby. It's hard enough as it is to buy something for a millionaire."

"If it's from you and it celebrates this moment, I'll love it," Sean said.

"OK," she said dubiously, donning his white shirt.

He stares at her with the strangest sense of deja vu, harkening back to the fantasy he had about her the night before they were kidnapped. "Is that it?"

She looks at him strangely. "Uh, no. You'll have to come with me."

"I'll follow you anywhere dressed like that," he said.

"I'll have to remember that," she said, taking his hand and walking toward the interior of the island.

They arrive at a place near the waterfall where they made love after the plane crash and she points out a hammock hanging near where they had built the campfire.

"The wedding hammock?" he smirked.

"They say it takes a certain touch," she said.

They walk over to the hammock, hand in hand. They start to edge onto it. And initially it goes well, but when he moves in to kiss her, they topple over and fall on the ground.

"You all right?" he asked, brushing her off.

"I'm fine," she said, kissing him to prove that's the case.

"Should we get back into the saddle?"

"Well my father always had his own theory about that. It's important to get right back up on the proverbial horse, but even more important is building up confidence before doing that. Sooooo... with that in mind," she moves his hands under the shirt and pulls him to her.

"He may have a point," Sean said, enjoying the theory.

An hour later, they're trying the hammock out again. They climb on and deftly find the balance between it and the friction they're creating with each other. They move together in perfect symmetry. After a torrent of kisses, soft whispers in each other's ears, deep gazes into the other's eyes and overwhelming passion, they finally fall asleep completely entwined in each other's arms.


End file.
